Last night I went back to Valentine Well again, to try for some bats. Vikki Jackson and Mark Johnson came out too and Vikki had her bat detector. We learned a few things. One, there are apparently several bat species in the area that are not coming to the water, or at least not while I’m set up with photography. Most of what I photograph is Yuma Myotis and Pallid Bat. And that is exactly what happened again, last night. Also, it seems that the bats don’t echolocate when coming to water, the bat detector did not pick them up while they were obviously getting a drink and setting off the camera/flash. I only got a couple of good shots and both were of Pallid Bat.
Incoming Pallid Bat. I surely don’t need more photos of Pallid Bats, but it is still fun to capture images like this. Another nice capture of Pallid Bat. This was the star of the show last night! Just before Vikki and Mark left, we could hear a Western Screech-Owl, but did not see it. Shortly after they left, I heard it again and this time is was closer. I finally found it in the beam of the flashlight and could see something wriggling from its beak! I managed to get two shots before it flew off. At first I was thinking it had a small snake (small desert owls are known to put a threadsnake in their nest to control nest parasites), but as it turned out it was a large centipede. I have lots of photos of Western Screech-Owls but none are as interesting as this one! Later that night I found this one too. Judging from the markings, this is a different owl, probably the mate.
Temperatures are rising and is so is herp activity. I made a trip out to Valentine Well one night but bats weren’t very active, I only got one good shot. The weather forecast shows another warm day today and Saturday, followed by a rapid cool down.
Yesterday I saw three Western Diamondbacks. I also found two Goode’s Horned Lizards. Last night, Vikki Jackson and I checked out the pond at the golf course. There were lots of bats flying around, but the best find was breeding Great Plains Toads. One has to be there to appreciate how loud these toads are. The sound is deafening at close range. The only bat I’ve been able to photograph so far, at Valentine Well. I am not convinced that these bats are Yuma Myotis, but that seems to be the consensus at iNaturalist.It is mating season for Black-tailed Jackrabbits too, and they are often seen moving around in daytime now. Bluedicks, or Desert Hyacinth, are blooming profusely now. This plant is in the Asparagus family. Many species of wildlife and Native Americans use the root (known as a corm) for food. Desert Wishbone, a flower with a nice drop of nectar at the base of the anthers. In the Four-o’clock family, the flowers open at night and only last one day. The common name comes from appearance of the forked and white-bleached year old stems. Desert Lotus, or Desert Bird’s Foot Trefoil. The flowers are tiny, the plant forms low mats.
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.
I had to go try again. There is something addicting about this, to keep taking photo after photo hoping for that one great photo to appear. It doesn’t happen very often. I can’t say that any of the images I got last night are great, but there were some keepers. As always, one can right click on an image and open in a new tab or window for a larger view.
My hosts have a tall step ladder to get closer to the agave flowers. Last night I used some bungie straps to fasten my tripod to the ladder and got this. I think I should have spent more time on the ladder.I spent most of the night working the bats at the Octopus Agaves with a handheld camera/lens, prefocused. Here is a Lesser Long-nosed Bat taking off after getting a drink of nectar. There is a species of bat called the Yellow Bat, but this isn’t it. A Lesser Long-nosed Bat covered in pollen. It seems like there is room for all at these agaves but the bats have their conflicts.Ow!A bundle of bats.
A couple of nights ago I went back to Valentine Well to try for, once again, a good shot of a Townsend’s Big-eared Bat. I got no photos of that species. Bat activity at the well was pretty slow. All I got was more Yuma Myotis photos. I stayed until about 9 PM then headed back to Ajo on the Scenic Loop Road and Alley Road. As always, I was looking for snakes or whatever else might show and was pleasantly surprised with a Rosy Boa, only the second one I’ve ever seen.
The only keeper bat photo of the night was this Yuma Myotis. Here the boa has rolled its underside up and one can see the black speckled markings there.
Paul and Linda, fellow snowbirds and friends of mine in Ajo, own a home that has a remarkable variety of desert plants in the yard. There are several species of agave and some of these are blooming now. Nectar bats have appeared in good numbers, I’ve spent a couple of nights there photographing them. The laser trigger won’t work in this setup, so I just prefocus on a point and hope a bat comes to it.
All of the nectar bats appear to be one species, the Lesser Long-nosed Bat. This one had just finished feeding and is dropping off the flower. While feeding on nectar, they get a lot of pollen on their fur. This species is an important pollinator of desert cacti and other plants. This image isn’t very sharp but one can see the yellow pollen on the bat. I find it very difficult to get a good angle on the bats and I don’t get many sharp ones, so I can’t be too picky about which photos to keep. I shot over 200 images and only a dozen or so are worth keeping. Another bat leaving the flower, they don’t stay on the flowers very long. I think this is my favorite one so far. As always, right click on the image and open in a new tab or window for a larger view.
It is that time of year again, where there is so much to do I can’t decide what to do next. One result is I don’t get much sleep. I finally caught up on sleep last night.
A couple of nights ago, I captured about 2 hours of the Sombrero Galaxy, M104, and added it to what I captured last winter. I’d like to get even more, weather permitting. Same with M106, I added more to what I captured last winter. It is starting to look very nice. Even though these galaxies are tens of millions of light years out there, it is a sissy skip in distance compared to the quasars I posted earlier. Hardly even worth mentioning anymore. And M65, one of the Leo Triplets, more data added to what I had from last winter. The frustrating thing about astrophotography is the amount of time it takes to get a good image. At least the nighttime temperatures aren’t as cold now and it makes it more enjoyable to be outside. Last night I went to Valentine Well again and got this shot of a Pallid Bat in the act of getting a drink. A female Gila Woodpecker showing its underside. There were four of them having some kind of dispute and they all liked to hang on the fence while doing it. Phainopepla carrying nest material.
Friday afternoon I drove back out to Valentine Well. The weather wasn’t as warm as I had hoped but I still thought I could get some decent bat activity. About a mile before the well, I saw a sight that one does not often see here in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, an Osprey.
A rare sight around the Ajo area, an Osprey, and even rarer to see one perched on a Saguaro. I think I’ve seen Osprey maybe twice before. There is no water with fish for at least 60 miles, but the birds are common along the Sea of Cortez and of course will migrate through. But landing on a Saguaro? The main reason I keep trying for bats at Valentine Well is to get a really good photo of this species, Townsend’s Big-eared Bat. It is always close but so far I have none that are really sharp and contain the entire bat. This one is not sharp but otherwise it would be perfect! My big hope is for a Spotted Bat to start using the tank. Yuma Myotis are the most common bat out there and most of my shots are of this species. Therefore, I get more good ones. What I need is good photos of different species. This Yuma Myotis is coming in for a drink. They are very fast, and they don’t slow down much for a drink. As always, right click on an image and open in new window for a larger image.
I would like to leave pretty soon, it has been getting up near 100F yesterday and today. It should cool down now for a few days and that’s good because the truck has developed a problem, the check engine light came on. At NAPA they did a diagnostic that said it was an O2 sensor. NAPA can’t do it till week and I called the Ford dealer in Buckeye and they can’t do it till next Tuesday. So, I’m stuck. I can drive it to town and around the area, but if it gets worse I will have to park it and have it towed in, so I’m limiting the driving. No more driving around at night, that’s for sure!
I’ve managed a little astrophotography, but most nights I’ve been out photographing bats or looking for snakes. Here’s the Sombrero Galaxy with the C8, first time with guiding. The Silver Streak Galaxy and neighbors. These galaxies are in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. A very sharp shot of a Yuma Myotis getting a drink. The bat activity at Valentine Well has really dropped off but there are still quite a few of the smaller bats. One of the few bat photos I’ve taken with the wings down. The Great Horned Owls at the golf course are successfully raising their young. Light was pretty bad but it turned out OK. Another angle on the nest with better light. A Nashville Warbler at the golf course. Vermilion Flycatcher. It is hard to pass up a good shot!
I’ve been going out to Valentine Well every night. Last night it was very slow so I guess I hit a peak period for awhile. Bats only tripped the trigger 5 times, on my best night the trigger was tripped 68 times. I will try again in a few days, tonight I’m going snake hunting.
I saw fresh Mountain Lion tracks at the well yesterday, they weren’t there the day before! I was hoping it would come back for a drink but I didn’t see it.
This is my setup. I use a 35mm lens on a Canon 7DMII. The laser trigger is set up to cover as much of the tank as possible, it is limited by the length of the cable to connect to the camera. I can buy a wireless transmitter that would help a lot with this issue. For this small tank, I can get by without it. The receiver/trigger is behind the lens and the laser is on the right. I blocked about a foot of the tank with a 2×4 to limit the open water a bit. The laser beam has to be low, just barely above the edge of the tank otherwise the bats tend to fly under it or trigger it after they are out of range.I posted this on iNaturalist and the consensus is that this is a Yuma Myotis. This is one the best bat photos I’ve taken so far! For my best photos, I take the time to remove the metal rim in the background, a tedious process.I wish I could have got the whole bat! A Townsend’s Big-eared Bat, very sharp!Myotis sp. This isn’t as sharp but I like the wing hitting the water.
