This is another species I’ve been looking for a long time. The Round-tailed Horned Lizard is the smallest of the horned lizards. It has a fairly extensive range across northern Mexico, New Mexico and west Texas, including this area of New Mexico, so I expected to stumble across it someday. I just didn’t think it would take this long. Finding horned lizards in general is mostly luck. This one seems to require more luck than the other species. Round-tailed Horned Lizards are masters of crypticity. Only when they move to get out of the way, does one see them.
A Round-tailed Horned Lizard. I got this one on a four-mile hike this morning. This species, like most horned lizards, can change its color to match the substrate. The light was pretty harsh, but the photos turned out OK. Here’s a shot from above. I also found this flower. I’m pretty sure this is Small Wirelettuce, Stephanomeria exigua. It may be another species of Stephanomeria. I’ll try to get an ID from iNaturalist.
I’m still here. The weather is pleasant, it is quiet, for the most part, and I’m still finding new things to photograph. I said it is quiet for the most part, but last week, there was an accident on I-10 east of Wilcox. A truck hit an overpass bridge and damaged it so badly that the westbound lane was closed. The traffic was all routed down state Highway 80, which goes right past me. I’m about 1/4 mile from the highway but it was still pretty noisy with all the trucks rumbling by. That lasted for two days. Most of the time there is very little traffic on Highway 80.
An Acmon Blue, living dangerously. Can you spot the crab spider?A new species of cactus for me, Beehive Cactus, Escobaria vivipara. One could almost pass this flower off as a bladderpod, which were extremely abundant earlier this spring. But it is later now, and I took a closer look. This is Golden Linanthus, Leptosiphon chrysanthus. I cannot find much information about it besides the name. It is in the Phlox family. This strange plant is Jatropha macrorhiza, Ragged Nettle-Spurge. It is reportedly rare in the United States. It occurs in southwest New Mexico and southeast Arizona but is more common in Mexico. I came across a pair of Black-throated Sparrows feeding this young bird that is fresh out of the nest. A Lesser Nighthawk roosting. This is the first time I’ve been able to get a shot like this, in fact the first time I’ve seen a Lesser Nighthawk roosting! Mammallaria heyderi, Pancake Pincushion. First one I’ve ever seen. During wet periods, the cactus will pull in enough water to swell up to the size of a basketball. Mexican Cactus Fly. The larvae feed on dying cactus. This one is nectaring on Brittlebush. Red Four o’Clock, Mirabilis coccinea.
This morning I took off on a long hike to investigate a mountain I can see in the distance from the rim of the Peloncillos. The mountain had a sheer face with lots of large boulders piled up at the base. Looked like good herp habitat. In addition, the big rock face will run off lots of rain into the boulders at the base, therefore should be much wetter than most of this area. When I got to the scene, that is what I found. The mountainside is pure granite with a large jumble of boulders at the base. There are many types of plants growing in the boulders that I don’t see elsewhere around here. Most notable, lots of Soapberry. There is a butterfly called a Soapberry Hairstreak that I’ve been looking for, this could be the place to get it. I didn’t see any today though. There was also more Gambel’s Oak.
I’ve never seen this flower before, Buckley’s Centaury, Zeltnera calycosa. What a beautiful flower! Typically, this plant grows in wetter places and the boulder field seems to be good enough. Another view with a different angle. Desert Holly, Acourtia nana, is flowering, first time I’ve seen this happen. I got two lifer butterflies today. This one is a Texas Powdered Skipper, very similar to the Arizona Powdered Skipper, but there are differences. The other lifer butterfly, an Acacia Skipper. I was checking the Turkey Vultures soaring overhead and found this Zone-tailed Hawk in with them. At the base of the boulder field, there was a lot of Cane Cholla in flower. I tried to make this into a Mexican Fritillary, but it isn’t, just the ordinary Variegated Fritillary.
This morning I went for my usual morning hike. I headed west over the rim of the Peloncillo Mountains. At my location, that rim isn’t very high, but it still gives a great view of the surrounding area and the Chiricahua Mountains to the west. At the crest, as I was admiring the scenery, a Scott’s Oriole flew into some Ocotillos right in front of me, sun behind me. I thought sure, as soon as I raise up the camera it will fly off. But it didn’t. I took 77 photos as it foraged in the flowers. The bird was definitely pollinating too.
My favorite, nice light, nice action, nice background, great bird! What more could one ask for? I have lots of images like this one. This image shows the pollen on the bird’s face and bill. This one turned out very nice too. I’ve never seen a male Clark’s Spiny Lizard this colorful. At first, I wasn’t even sure what species this was. It doesn’t have the typical banding on the front legs, although there is some. The lizard posed so I could see the ventral blue patches. A Great Horned Owl, still apparently on a nest. This is getting pretty late in the season for that. Slender Janusia, Cottsia gracilis. This is the only species of Janusia in the region. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before. I copied the following from Southwest Desert Flora: A rare species in the United States, where Slender Janusia is found primarily in Arizona with small populations in New Mexico and Texas. It is also common in Baja California and Mexico.
I left Ajo on Wednesday and drove directly to Granite Gap. Ajo is getting hot, but here it is still very pleasant. This is a quiet location. I’ve been here three days and haven’t seen anyone. Not sure how long I will be here but at least a few more days. There are still quite a few flowers blooming and birding is good. The numbers of Tiger Whiptails are amazing and I’ve seen two Long-nosed Leopard Lizards.
The night before I left Ajo, I went herping with Danny and Rekha Martin. We got this Glossy Snake, a lifer for me! We also saw two Sidewinders. Here is one of the Sidewinders. One of two Long-nosed Leopard Lizards I’ve seen since arriving at Granite Gap. A cooperative Scott’s Oriole from this morning. Fallugia paradoxa, Apache Plume, is in flower now. A member of the Rose family, this is the only species in the genus Fallugia. One of my favorite desert flowers, Rock Hibiscus. I usually run across some of these in the Ajo area but not this spring. I only found one yesterday morning on my hike at Granite Gap. A Red-tailed Hawk carrying a Harris’s Antelope Ground Squirrel.
I’m still in Ajo. I will likely be heading east next week. It is getting pretty hot everyday now. I really hate to leave but it is time. I’ve had a few good nights of astro and the Long-tailed Brush Lizard mystery may have been solved.
M90, another of the Messier objects I’ve never imaged before. Looking at this in Stellarium I didn’t think it was going to look like much, but I’m impressed. It is a beautiful galaxy, rich colors, and lots of interesting things going on. The star-forming regions are very limited, so the outer arms appear smooth and nearly featureless. But the center is a different story. About 60 million light years out there, in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, M90 is another of the rare, blue-shifted galaxies that is moving toward our galaxy instead of away from it. There are a lot of small, faint background galaxies and one larger dwarf galaxy, IC 3583. NGC 5033, also named the Waterbug Galaxy, is an inclined spiral galaxy located in the constellation Canes Venatici. I’m quite proud of this one, M13, the Great Cluster in Hercules. While it is pretty easy to get a photo of star cluster, getting one without blowing out the central stars, getting good round stars all around, good star color and without star bloating, is hard. I finally figured out a good formula, use shorter exposures, take lots of them, and use some different processing. The star colors came out very nicely. I like this!This afternoon I had two different Long-tailed Brush Lizards show up on my solar panel. One had half its tail missing, so I know there were two different ones. I think the explanation for where the earlier one came from is this; it climbed up the cables for the solar panels, which enter the camper through the window I sit by. Note the yellow throat and hints of blue on the belly of this male. A male Ornate Tree Lizard showing off. A male Black-tailed Gnatcatcher carrying food, there was a female in the area doing the same thing. I could not find the nest but didn’t spend much time looking for it.
The action around here is hard to keep up with. Last night I took a night walk on Child’s Mountain looking for snakes and whatever else might turn up. I got one Western Lyresnake and saw several Poorwills. This morning, I headed for Lake Ajo to check out the birds. I got a Willet and a Snowy Plover, both very good birds for this area. To top it all off, when I got back to the camper, I became aware of something on my shoulder, when I reached for it, whatever it was leaped off onto the floor. It was a small lizard, and I started to get suspicious. I herded it toward the door, and it climbed up on the screen. My camera with macro lens was in the truck, so I carefully snuck by the lizard, got the camera and took some photos. Proof of what it was, a Long-tailed Brush Lizard. I’ve been looking for one of these for a long time. I thought I had one once in Alamo Canyon years ago but was never quite sure about that one. This one is a positive ID. So, where did it come from? I could have picked it up this morning while birding around Lake Ajo, but it would have to been on my back while I went to the grocery store, got water and drove back. It could have already been in the truck from some previous day, and it just decided to climb onto me. Or had it somehow got into the camper and climbed onto me? I guess I will never know.
Long-tailed Brush Lizard. A lifer for me! Note the very long tail, some of which is out of the frame. These lizards are very similar to the Ornate Tree Lizard, but the wide row of enlarged, keeled scales down the back is diagnostic of Long-tailed Brush Lizard. Western Lyresnake from last night. I have much better photos of this species so didn’t bother trying to get more than this. This is the globular star cluster M3. One of the finest star clusters in the northern skies, it can be seen using binoculars in Canes Venatici. This the right time of year to be looking for globs, there are several (M3, M5, M13) that are easily seen with binoculars if one knows where to look. M3 contains over 500,000 stars, estimated to be 11 billion years old, about 32,600 light years out there. M98 or NGC 4192, is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 44.4 million light-years away in Coma Berenices, about 6° to the east of the bright star Denebola. It is dim and not very remarkable to look at, but there are interesting facts about it. It is one of the few galaxies with a blueshift, meaning it is moving toward our galaxy instead of away from it. Out of the billions of galaxies known about 100 are blueshifted.
The heat has arrived. Yesterday it hit 100 F at my campsite and probably will be close to that today. Nighttime warmth has brought out the insects and herps are more active too. I even managed to fit in a couple of nights of astro. Now to get some photos posted.
My first Gila Monster in several years. I found this one the road into McGrady Wash yesterday. This morning I found a Coachwhip on the Scenic Loop Road. I opted for this close-up of the head. Here is the whole snake, a big one. I learned a long time ago that trying to handle Coachwhips just doesn’t pay off. They fight and bite and they are strong. This is a bark-boring beetle, Temnoscheila chlorodia. Supposedly found on conifers, but there are no conifers around here, except for a very few in town. Must be a disperser. Triocnemis saporis, an uncommonly reported moth. Larval food plants include various species of Eriogonum.Pyrausta pseudonythesalis, apparently nothing is known about it other than basic distribution.Forsebia cinis, Forsebia Moth. Larval food plant is probably Yellow Palo Verde. This is the only species in the genus found north of Mexico. Angel Lichen Moth, Cisthene angelus. Larva feed on lichens and algae. A beetle in the genus Phengodes. The species is unknown, but a generic name for these insects is Glowworm Beetle. The females and larvae have bioluminescent organs. This one is a male, only the males have wings. A Western Corsair Bug, Rasahus thoracicus, a species of assassin bug. Unlike most of the other assassin bugs, the bite of the Western Corsair Bug can be extremely painful.
I have continued trying to photograph pollinators at Ajo Lily flowers. Paul Johnson and I sat out Sunday night for a couple of hours and despite what seemed like suitable conditions, we had no success. Last night it was very windy and cold. Tonight, the wind went down but it was still cool. I decided to try anyway and I’m glad I did! I’m also going to add some photos from a blacklight session last week. My old blacklight quit working and BioQuip (an entomology supply company) has gone out of business. So, I had to try something different. I bought a blacklight LED strip, about 3 feet long. It runs off a 12 volt battery. My only night testing it was also pretty cool, but it attracted plenty of insects, despite the chilly weather. I’m looking forward to more of that as the weather warms. As always, a larger image can be seen by right clicking on an image and opening in a new tab or window.
This is my favorite White-lined Sphinx image as it visits the Ajo Lily. One can see the proboscis extending into the flower tube. I used a hand-held remote shutter release instead of relying on the laser trigger, I was able to get more shots that way. I like this one too, the uppersides of the wings are more colorful. Now the moth is really getting into the pollen on the anthers. The stigma and style are just below the moth’s abdomen. Macaria deceptrix, larval food plant is Condalia.Zaleops umbrina, this is the only species of Zaleops found north of Mexico. Larval food plant is Catsclaw Acacia. Lithostege fuscata, there are very few records of this moth in BugGuide. It is restricted to deserts of California, Arizona and New Mexico. Not much else is known about it. Hemeroplanis incusalis, larval food plant is mesquites and other legumes. It has a wider distribution, in deserts and low mountains of Arizona, California and Nevada. My sister Susan asked the question, if the red spot on Lithostege fuscata was part of the moth or a parasite? I had passed it off as a red spot on the moth, but I took a closer look and indeed, it is a parasite!
I started getting interested in the pollinators of Ajo Lilies after the local plants started flowering. I have a dozen or so flowering around the camper now and I thought it might be worth trying to photograph pollinators. I did a Google search for photos of Ajo Lily pollinators and was surprised that I could only find one image and it wasn’t very good. Pollinators are reported to be sphinx moth and possibly hummingbirds. The new flowers open in the late afternoon. They only last a couple of days at the most. Tonight, I set up the laser trigger on a fresh flower. Just as it started getting dark, I got a White-lined Sphinx Moth at the flower.
This isn’t exactly what I was going for, but I’ll take it. The moth has pollen on its legs and nectar on its proboscis. I will try again tomorrow night. As always, right click on the image and open in a new tab for a larger image. While scouting around for a good Ajo Lily setup, I found two Goode’s Horned Lizards, first of the spring. Cropped view of the head. There are two species of horned lizards in the Ajo area, the arrangement of the cranial horns is one way to separate them. And I’ll throw in a couple of new flower photos. This one is Mentzelia affinis.Silene antirrina.
