Author: Doug Backlund

Still at Granite Gap

It just won’t cool down out at Ajo. It did for few days but then the heat returned. It looks like maybe next week it will start to cool down again. It has been very nice here at Granite Gap. I have lots of hummingbirds at my feeders, but only three species so far.

I don’t think I’ve ever posted a photo of my campsite here at Granite Gap. I’m backed up to some big rocks and a few juniper trees, it gives some shade in late afternoon and protection from southwest winds, which is the prevalent wind direction here. State Highway 80 is about 300 yards behind the rocks, but there is very little traffic.

This Bewick’s Wren posed nicely for me a few days ago, right outside the camper.

This morning I came back from my hike and found this Painted Redstart behind the camper. I’ve never seen one here before. I suppose it is a migrant from the mountains heading south.

A large robber fly, sucking the juice out of an unidentified insect.

Heading West

I’ve gone as far south as I’m going to. Now I’m heading west. I stopped at Valley of Fires for a couple of nights. There was only one campsite open and it was directly across from the restrooms/showers. Not a good spot, people coming going all day and night. Now, I’m at Granite Gap and as usual, it is quiet and peaceful. I’ve been here since Sunday. It is a little hotter than I’d like but it is tolerable. Cool weather is on the horizon.

I keep the cooler in the shade of large juniper behind the camper. Last night, I went out to get some food and was startled by the buzzing rattle of a startled Black-tailed Rattlesnake. I didn’t have my flashlight as the full moon put out plenty of light. I didn’t have any trouble spotting the snake about 5 ft. away, backed up against the rocks behind the cooler. Naturally, I got the camera and put on the flash and took some photos.

I’ve got three species of hummingbirds coming in, this one is a juvenile Broad-tailed Hummingbird.

Most of them are Black-chinned Hummingbirds. Males are difficult to get a photo of that shows the black and violet gorget. This one turned out pretty good.

This Warbling Vireo has just caught a leaf-footed bug.

A Cassin’s Sparrow that was surprisingly cooperative, usually they are very sneaky outside of the nesting season.

Indian Rushpea, *Hoffmannseggia glauca*. Several Native American tribes ate the tuberous bulbs raw, boiled or roasted, including Pima, Apache, and Pueblo.

Astrophotography Aurora Borealis Birding Insects

Heading South

I left my campsite yesterday and drove to Sidney, Nebraska. I’m in the Cabela’s RV Park. Today I’m aiming to make to it to Timpas and spending the night there. I would have been happy to stay where I was, but the weather is changing, a period of rain and cloudy weather is moving in.

Here is another image of STEVE from the geomagnetic storm that occurred Monday night. Spaceweather.com had several other reports and photos of STEVE. Mine was the only one from South Dakota. I was pretty excited to see this! I guess I won’t be seeing any more auroras now that I’m going south. Read more about STEVE at this LINK.

A few days ago, I was sorting things out in the truck when I noticed lots of small things hitting the truck. A closer look revealed that backswimmers, aquatic insects, were coming out of the sky onto the truck. I checked around the area and they were not coming down on the camper or anywhere else. I realized what was happening, the shiny, black truck looked like water to the backswimmers. There must have been a large hatch of them somewhere and they were looking for new areas to colonize. This is a photo of one I took some years back at the same place, genus Notonecta.

It took a few days, but I finally found a few Pygmy Nuthatches near camp.

A pair of Canada Jays (Gray Jays) in the top of a pine.

I probably shouldn’t even show this, it is not very good. This is Abell 85, an extremely faint supernova remnant near Cassiopeia. I spent three nights on this, gathering 6 hours of exposure. I could not even see it in any of my photos, and even after processing it was very faint. Without the new software that allows me to remove stars before processing, it would have been hopeless. Unless I decide to invest in a new astrophotography camera, I think these very faint objects will be off limits to me, it just isn’t worth the time.

Astrophotography Aurora Borealis

Northern Lights

Tonight, there was a major geomagnetic storm, and the auroras began as soon as it was dark enough to see them. It was not the best display I’ve seen in South Dakota, but the appearance of another phenomenon was completely unexpected and welcome! I took lots of photos but for now, I’m going to post only three. I wish this had happened when I was in Harding County, a couple of degrees further north might have made a big difference.

The aurora stayed low on the horizon most of the time, this is about as good as it got. I could see it very well with the unaided eye but the camera picks up a lot more color. All images are taken with a Canon 6D, 35mm Sigma art lens, mounted on an iOptron Sky Tracker.

On the left is STEVE. STEVE, formally known as Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, is different from the aurora. It looks like a ribbon of pink or mauve light. Sometimes, STEVE even has a “picket fence” appearance, with green columns of light passing through the ribbon. That can be seen in my photo. Auroras, by contrast, usually are shimmering green ribbons. Very exciting to see it!

Another image with STEVE and aurora on the right. I enhanced the stars in the Big Dipper.

Birding

Some Pierre Area Birds and now the Black Hills

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date September 15, 2023

After two weeks of waiting, I finally got the new truck registered, and I am on the road again. Currently, I’m at my favorite spot in the Black Hills, southwest of Jewel Cave. There is still some logging activity, but it isn’t close to me. I’ll stay here for a few more days then start moving south. Tonight, I’m doing astro, the conditions are perfect.

While in Pierre, I found this Sabine’s Gull on the Legion beach. It has been a few years since I’ve seen a Sabine’s so I was happy to see it and even happier that I could get close for photos! Usually one gets distant flight shots of this species.

Among the migrants I saw, I was able to photograph this Philadelphia Vireo. This is another species I haven’t seen for several years.

A Blue-headed Vireo with what appears to be some species of lacewing. This would have a very nice shot if it weren’t for that branch blocking the view of the insect.

This morning I went on a 7-mile hike, ending up at Baldwin Spring, where I sat in my “nest” for a couple of hours. Usually there is more activity but today, it was mostly Townsend’s Solitaires.

Yesterday was gloomy and rainy but I went for short walk. I found a family group of Canada Jays and got these two on the top of a pine.

This Canada Jay was closer, despite the low light the images are sharp.

An American Kestrel that posed for me at Farm Island.

Astrophotography Birding Insects

A New Truck

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date August 29, 2023

This morning I left the Slim Buttes and drove to Pierre to get my new truck, a 2023 Toyota Tacoma. It is a lot smaller than the Ford F-150 I had but I think I can fit all my stuff in it. I may have to downsize the load a little. I can’t say I can recommend a Ford F-150 to anyone, given all the problems I had with it. Maybe I just got a bad one. Anyway, I’m glad to be rid of it. I may stay here a few days before heading for my next destination, as of now that is unknown but likely somewhere in New Mexico.

A few days ago I was hiking in the Red Cross Spring area of the Slim Buttes. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this Long-eared Owl flew in and landed in a pine tree. The birds in the area got excited and started mobbing it, but they didn’t keep at it too long.

I got some pretty good shots of this Black-capped Chickadee as it foraged for seeds on the seed heads of coneflowers.

This is a Juba Skipper, quite a rare species in South Dakota, with only nine records, according to The Butterflies of South Dakota. It is also a county record for Harding County.

Using my new filter, I worked on this a few nights ago. This is the Lion Nebula, in Cepheus. It is very faint and in a rich star field. Without the filter and my new software, I would not have had much of chance of getting anything useful. This is a very faint nebula. I want to add more exposure to it when I get a chance.

Astrophotography Bats Birding Insects

A Few Photos

It is typical August, birding has slowed, butterflies are much less numerous but there are the late summer species showing up now. I’m seeing flocks of nighthawks moving through. There are two species of late summer butterflies that I’d like to find, Mead’s Wood-Nymph and Pine White. I’ve seen Mead’s Wood-Nymph once before, in the North Cave Hills. Pine Whites have never been reported from the pine forests of Harding County, but they are common in the Black Hills. I had a few nights that were good for astro.

I saw the first one yesterday and today I saw more. Western Branded Skippers are uncommon in South Dakota, and this is the first time I’ve seen them. They are nectaring on Curlycup Gumweed.

I saw this Red-headed Woodpecker working on a caterpillar and got some good photos. I do not know what the caterpillar is.

A few days ago, I opened up the back topper door and there was a bat sitting on the tailgate of the truck. I got a few photos before it woke up and flew off. Apparently, it had crawled into the gap between the door and tailgate and went to sleep for the day. This is a Little Brown Bat.

NGC 6820 is a small reflection nebula near an open star cluster known as NGC 6823.The reflection nebula and cluster within a faint emission nebula called Sh2-86. The whole area is often referred to as NGC 6820. It is about 6000 light years away, in the constellation Vulpecula.

Ghosts of Cassiopeia. About 600 light-years distant, the dust clouds are slowly disappearing under the influence of energetic radiation from hot, luminous star Gamma Cassiopeiae. Gamma Cassiopeiae is an eruptive variable star, whose apparent magnitude changes irregularly from 1.6 at its brightest to 3.0 at its dimmest. Gamma Cassiopeiae is physically located only 3 to 4 light-years from the nebulae. Gamma Cassiopeiae is also known as Navi. Navi (Ivan spelled backwards, Ivan was astronaut Gus Grissom’s middle name), is a seldom-used nickname for the star Gamma Cassiopeiae. Grissom used this name on his Apollo 1 mission planning star charts as a joke, and the succeeding Apollo astronauts kept using the name as a memorial after his death when the command module interior caught fire and burned on January 27, 1967.

Astrophotography

The Tulip Nebula

I’m back at the Slim Buttes. I’ve had a couple of nights with good conditions for astrophotography. It was very enjoyable being out under the dark skies with no light pollution whatsoever and no moon. I selected a target that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, the Tulip Nebula in Cygnus. This is a summer target. Nights are short in summer, and clouds are common, so it is hard to get some of these summer targets. I have acquired some new software, StarXterminator and NoiseXterminator. With these I can remove the stars for processing and later add them back in. In a star rich field like this, the stars tend to overwhelm everything else. By processing them separately, I can get much better results. Noise reduction really helps a lot too.

Birding Herps Insects

Pierre, Again

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date August 3, 2023

I’m back in Pierre for a few days. It is hot. Finally, a cooling trend is arriving tomorrow. I’ve been out looking for shorebirds at a wetland northeast of Pierre. Shorebird migration is in full swing and there are lots of birds to see. I was excited to see a Black-necked Stilt. The wetland is in Hughes County and that was a new county bird for me. My Hughes County life list is now at 317.

Black-necked Stilt at Baumgartner Slough, Hughes County, SD. It was a long way out so the photo isn’t very good.

There are lots of Black Terns feeding on aquatic insects. I kept trying to get a good shot of this activity and finally I got this juvenile.

Another Black Tern, this one is an adult.

The day before I left the Slim Buttes, I found this juvenile Racer on the road. It let me get very close.

Also at the Slim Buttes, I found two Eastern Tiger Swallowtails at Red Cross Spring. These represent a new county record.

This is a good example of why a photo is needed of both the upper and underside of the wing. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is easily confused with the Two-tailed Swallowtail and the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail. The marginal band of the forewing is broken up into spots if an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, the other two species have a continuous band of yellow.

Birding Photography

Common Poorwills

Sunday night Charlie Miller and I went for a night drive, mostly to see if we could get more Northern Saw-whets to responds to calls. We had no success with that. However, on the roads there were Common Poorwills. I think these must have been family groups, as there would be several close to together, then none for a distance. Also, some of the birds were incredibly tame, I think I could have picked up several of them, but I didn’t try that. I suspect that these were the young ones, probably just out of the nest. One just sat on the road as we drove slowly by. I took a photo out of the truck window, looking down.