Wacky Wildlife Tour: Cowboy Cologne?

Hawks soared, flowers bloomed and Osama bin Laden was freshly dead. Talk about a perfect day.

Strapped in the back of a bouncing Ford pickup, Patch joined a Monday morning wildflower tour of Limestone Canyon and Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park, a 4,300-acre expanse of rolling hills, panoramic views and some rather offbeat plants and animals.

During the trek, we sniffed "cowboy cologne," stumbled across a plant that resembles clown hair and encountered freeloader birds that lay their eggs in other birds' nests and hog the host's food.

The park, which burned to a crisp in the 2007 Santiago fire, has recovered well. And May is the last month to glimpse this year's spring wildflowers. However, visiting options are limited. Although the Whiting Ranch portion of the park is open daily from 7 a.m. to sunset, the most intriguing scenery this year is at Limestone Canyon. Unfortunately, Limestone is a gated wildlife community, closed to the public except for special days and programs.

Here are a few tour highlights:

• California sagebrush is nicknamed cowboy cologne because Old West ranch hands who had been on the trail a little too long sometimes rubbed the aromatic leaves on themselves before going into town, according to supervising OC Parks Ranger Ron Slimm.
• There is or was a "phantom pooper" defiling Orange County parks. The topic came up when tour organizers mentioned a list of reality-based plot ideas they had for the NBC sitcom "Parks and Recreation." Alas, when Patch asked for details, their lips became sealed. But perhaps this is a clue.
• Limestone Canyon has several cowbird traps designed to catch parasitic birds that lay their eggs in other birds' nests and even kick out the host's eggs and hatchlings. Hawks occasionally break into the cowbird trap cages and, when rangers stop by later, all that's left is a hawk with "a very satisfied look" and no cowbirds, said restoration ecologist Jennifer Naegele.
• Other feathered creatures spotted on the tour included turkey buzzards, red-tailed hawks and a great blue heron chowing down a gopher in the Limestone Canyon parking lot.

Find out more in our slide show. Additional photos on the OC Parks wildlife blog and the OC Parks Flickr page.