But not much, certainly not enough. Two systems moved through and the total rain here was maybe .5 inch at best. According to the National Weather Service, most of the Ajo area and south to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument got about that much or less. It will help, better than nothing, but there won’t be much of spring flower bloom. Now we are in for an early heat wave. Bird migration is picking up. Maybe the best bird I’ve seen recently was a Purple Martin at Lake Ajo, the first one I’ve ever seen in the Ajo area and one of the earliest spring records ever recorded for Arizona. I got some very poor photos which I will not be showing here.
There a lots of bats flying around Lake Ajo in late afternoon, even before sundown, giving me enough light to get some flight shots. Vikki came over one afternoon with her bat detector and between what that tells us and the few good photos I got, this appears to be a Pocketed Free-tailed Bat. I found this Red-tailed Hawk in Bud Walker Park, it had just caught a Gamble’s Quail for breakfast. I’m always amazed at how versatile Red-tailed Hawks are!A FOS Wilson’s Warbler at the golf course. Since I photographed this one, I’ve seen many more. And a FOS Warbling Vireo. This is the only one I’ve seen so far. First there was one, a FOS Common Yellowthroat, now there are many. This is an object I’ve wanted to image for a long time. Finally, the time was right. Abell 33, also known as the Diamond Ring Nebula. This is a faint planetary nebula located about 2700 light years away in the constellation of Hydra. The star HD 83535, which has no relation to the nebula, gives it the “diamond ring” effect. It is very small (about 4 arc minutes) and very faint, without the IDAS Nebula Booster filter I would have no chance at getting it. Doubly ionized oxygen gives the nebula its color.
Unfortunately, I have to use the filter with 500 f4. This nebula is about the smallest object I can use the lens on and still get a result. This is about four hours of exposure time.
