OK, also one mammal. The weather has cooled down nicely and is perfect fall weather for the Sonoran Desert. It seems every day brings something new. Just yesterday I was counting birds at Lake Ajo when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, it was a Gray Fox out in broad daylight, sauntering by the truck. Now that the full moon is past, I expect to start doing astrophotography again.
The sun was high, so the light wasn’t the best, but I whistled at the fox, and it paused for some photos. At Highway Tank this female Brewer’s Blackbird posed for a nice photo with a nice background. During a hike up McGrady Wash, this Loggerhead Shrike swooped by and landed in a bush. I could see it was eating something, but it was too well hidden to identify the prey. Then it flew into a creosote bush with some of its prey. A tight crop of the image shows this. I think I can see lizard skin. A Hermit Thrush that posed very nicely. This Northern Waterthrush is the first one I’ve ever seen in the Sonoran Desert. It was at Highway Tank. A Lincoln’s Sparrow at the golf course. And a Cassin’s Finch at the golf course. I put in another night at the black light with some friends and got this fly. A nocturnal fly is sort of unusual, so I photographed it. It turns out it is in the genus Ormia. From Wikipedia: Ormia is a small genus of nocturnal flies in the family Tachinidae, that are parasitoids of crickets. Flies in this genus have become model organisms in sound localization experiments because of their “ears”, which are complex structures inside the fly’s prothorax near the bases of the front legs. A mating pair of Robber Flies. A photo of the underwing of a Staghorn Cholla Moth.
2 replies on “Birds and Bugs”
Such a pretty fox. You’re getting good birds there!
2 replies on “Birds and Bugs”
Such a pretty fox. You’re getting good birds there!
Great shots. That fox was an awesome sighting.