I’m still here, the weather is great and I’m having a good time. I’ve made a few trips to Cave Creek and one trip up to Rustler Park. At Rustler Park, nearly 10,000 ft. elevation, there is still snow in the gullies. I’ve been picking up birds that I haven’t seen for years, only because I haven’t looked for them. I’m at 220 species now, compared to 151 at this time last year.
Grace’s Warbler. These are fairly common in the pines but difficult to get a photo of. I found a nice flock of Mexican Chickadees. In the same area, I got two Olive Warblers, but the photos are not worth showing. On the road down from Rustler Park, I got two Montezuma Quail. Here’s one of them. I have now seen three Gila Monsters in the Granite Gap area. Here’s the third one, just this morning. I put out the black light one night while doing astro. I got some interesting insects. This one is Lineostriastiria hachita, an owlet moth that is rarely reported and almost nothing is known about it. Records are from southeast Arizona, southern New Mexico, west Texas and down into Mexico.Theodore Carpenterworm Moth, Givira theodori. Larvae of this interesting looking moth are wood borers. It has a distribution similar to Lineostriastiria hachita. Catclaw Mimosa, very common around Granite Gap and now in flower. This shrub has recurved spines that catch on clothing when walking through it. Fendler’s Hedgehog Cactus, Echinocereus fendleri ssp. fendleri. There are quite a few in flower now. Caldwell 45, also catalogued as NGC5248. Sixty million light years out there, in the direction of the constellation Bootes.NGC 4414, 62 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices. It is a flocculent spiral galaxy, without the well-defined spiral arms of a grand design spiral galaxy. I should have spent more time on this one but this is what I have. There are lots of small background galaxies in this image.
One reply on “Granite Gap”
Wow! You are clearly having a wonderful time. You deserve it after a quiet winter. I walked Wildcat Wash last night- not a single snake. In fact no snake on the past three nights of night adventures. I probably head north Thursday.
One reply on “Granite Gap”
Wow! You are clearly having a wonderful time. You deserve it after a quiet winter. I walked Wildcat Wash last night- not a single snake. In fact no snake on the past three nights of night adventures. I probably head north Thursday.