Category: Flowers and Plants

April in the Sonoran Desert

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date April 6, 2024
2 Comments on April in the Sonoran Desert

It has been a very cool spring. I actually had frost on the truck this morning! Normally by now we would be seeing highs in the low 90’s. It looks like that will be coming next week. The Ajo area got another inch of rain too. Birding is starting to pick up, just in the last few days, Franklin’s Gulls, Vaux’s Swift, Swainson’s Hawk, and lots of White-faced Ibis have been showing up. I have a lot of new photos to post.

This is NGC 4216, the Silver Streak Galaxy. I have imaged this before (in 2021, see inset), but I wanted to do it again because of a type Ia supernova that recently occurred. It was actually reported back in January but it is still bright enough to show up. All of the nuclear firepower on Earth would seem like a firecracker compared to this Ia supernova, the explosion of a white dwarf. The supernova is marked with two red lines.

This is NGC 4450, a galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, about 50 million light years out there. It is small from our vantage point in the universe, but it is about 70,000 light years in diameter.

Here is Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks (2024), again. It is getting low in the west but still high enough to photograph. It is easy to see with binoculars. I used a 200mm lens this time, hoping to get more of the long tail. It didn’t turn out as well as I hoped, probably due to being only about 10 degrees above the horizon and some stiff wind I had to deal with.

There was another rocket launch from Vandenberg SFB last week. For this one I used longer focal length (135mm). It worked out very well with the sunset. Right click and open in a new window for a larger view. Mercury is seen just above the exhaust in the center, and the booster can be seen falling away from the rocket in the upper left.

In this image the booster is seen in the exhaust plume. Nearer to the rocket are two bright objects that are the jettisoned halves of the protective payload shroud (nose cone), according my message from Launch Alert. It is amazing what can be seen from 500-600 miles away. There is another launch scheduled for tonight.

This morning Vikki and I were birding around Highway Tank when we found this Coachwhip. It climbed up into a bush and I got this photo. First one of the spring for both of us!

Last week, while watching some gulls at Lake Ajo, I noticed they suddenly went on alert, so I looked up and saw this Peregrine Falcon flying around the ponds.

Also from last week, a Lark Bunting at Highway Tank (there were two of them). First ones I’ve seen all winter and first of spring!

This spring there is a lot of this in flower, *Eriastrum diffusum*, Spreading Woolstar.

Dainty Desert Hideseed, *Eucrypta micrantha*. I could add many more plant photos but this will do for now!

Bats Flowers and Plants Herps Mammals

Some More First of Spring

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.

Birding Flowers and Plants Photography

New Flowers and a Mockingbird

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date March 17, 2024
1 Comment on New Flowers and a Mockingbird

This morning I went on hike up Child’s Mountain. It has been pretty chilly the last few days and it still was this morning, until the sun finally came out. My hiking trail is the road that leads to the summit. It is gated and open only to foot traffic. Off road, the terrain is very rocky and steep. The flowers are really coming along, Brittlebush is starting to bloom profusely. About a mile up, there is a flat and there I discovered a new plant for me, growing in abundance.

The new plant, Desert Onion, *Allium macropetalum*, a species of wild onion that is reported to be common and widespread in the southwest. However, according to records in iNaturalist, it is rarely reported in most of the Sonoran Desert. It is not even listed in my book Sonoran Desert Wildflowers. UPDATE: After some discussion in iNaturalist, it has been decided that this plant is Sperry’s Onion, *Allium perdulce* var. *sperry*. Rather than repeat what has already been said, if interested, read the information at this LINK .

The flowers on various plants range from creamy white to a light pink, as this one shows.

Here is a plant with nearly white flowers. I spent a long time looking at the variability among the plants. There were literally thousands of plants, quite amazing considering I have never seen it before. I don’t think the flowering stage will last very long though.

Here’s another new plant for me, Spiny Goldenweed, *Xanthisma spinulosum*. Like the onion, it appears to be more common in other areas of the American southwest, outside the Sonoran Desert.

Northern Mockingbirds are well known for this flight display. This is the time of year when they are very actively doing this. From a high, exposed perch, the males sing and then periodically fly up a few feet and display the white feathers in the wings and tail. I’ve tried to capture this with a camera before with little success, it is very difficult to maintain focus and the action is fast. Yesterday, I finally got a few photos that are worth showing. I would have liked a little more light on the eye, but this is the best I have so far.

Astrophotography Flowers and Plants Herps

Another Comet and Few More Photos

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date March 14, 2024

Last night I finally got the 500 f4 pointed to Comet 12P/Pons Brooks. This is the comet that the media has somehow come up with the name of Devil Comet, due to its odd shape earlier this year. All the hype aside, it is a bright comet right now and can be seen with binoculars low in the west after sunset. 12P/Pons Brooks is a periodic comet with an orbital period of 71 years. I thought I was going to have a hard time with it since the moon was quite bright, but it turned out to be quite easy to process.

I think if the moon hadn’t been so bright I could have got more of the tail, but I’m pretty happy with this. This is the result of 27 twenty-second exposures stacked in Deep Sky Stacker comet mode.

Emory’s Rock Daisy is quite common now, rocky slopes are loaded with it.

I haven’t seen much Owl Clover this spring. It is one of my favorite desert flowers, and had to photograph this one.

My first Desert Spiny Lizard of the spring, out getting warmed up in the morning sun.

Astrophotography Birding Flowers and Plants Insects

More Photos from the Ajo Area

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date March 13, 2024
1 Comment on More Photos from the Ajo Area

I made a trip to Buckeye to stock up at Walmart and on the way there, I birded. There were lots of birds at the Gillespie Dam, hundreds of egrets and herons, two species of cormorants, and lots of pelicans. Astrophotography continues to be hard, with too many clouds. But I have managed to get some done. I also made a trip down to Alamo Canyon, long overdue.

This is Abell 31, also known as Sh2-290. It is a very faint planetary nebula in the constellation Cancer. It is so faint that I cannot see it in any of my images until I stack and process. As far as planetary nebulas go, it is fairly large in view. This is what I got after 8 hours of exposure with the Nebula Booster filter and the 500f4 lens.

Comet 62P/Tsuchinshan is now passing through the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, so I tried it last night. At magnitude 10.5 it isn’t very bright. The comet is over 50 million miles distance. The galaxies are on the order of 50 million light years, some are nearly 90 million light years out there.

On a walk in Alamo Canyon, I found lots of Miner’s Lettuce, *Claytonia perfoliata*.

And also Redmaids, *Calandrinia ciliata.*

Some of the pelicans and one Snowy Egret at Gillespie Dam.

Some of the egrets I saw. At 100mm focal length, this is all could get in one frame.

Also in Alamo Canyon, I saw several Empress Leilia nectaring on Gooding’s Vervain. For me, this is unusual for two reasons. I rarely if ever have seen this species of hackberry butterfly nectar on anything and in my experience, not many butterflies nectar at this species of plant.

At the parking lot in Alamo Canyon, I watched this Northern Cardinal repeatedly attack its image in a sideview mirror on another car parked there. Then it flew up onto this Saguaro to sing loudly!

Astrophotography Flowers and Plants Photography

March Update

It has been a while since I posted anything, so here it goes. The weather here has been just perfect, not too hot, not too cold. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of clouds cutting into my astrophotography. All the rain has started another spring bloom that could rival last years. I have to keep reminding myself that it is only early March, once the weather turns warmer, the herps, plants, insects, birds, mammals will all be more prominent. I am really looking forward to it.

This is an Acuña cactus (*Echinomastus erectocentrus acunensis*), an endangered cactus that only occurs in five known populations in the United States, according to my book Field Guide to Cacti and other Succulents of Arizona. I recently was shown where one of those populations is, right here in Ajo. Today I checked it out again and found one in flower. There is a dozen or more cactus in this population, though I have not made an exact count.

This is Silverpuff, *Uropappus lindleyi*. There are a lot of these in flower now in localized areas. I liked how this photo turned out.

Pelotazo (*Abutilon incanum*) is flowering too. A true plant of the Sonoran Desert, it requires warm winters and summer rains. It is not found in the Mojave Desert region.

A late afternoon scene from last week. I was watching for a rainbow to form after some showers passed by but instead got this. The setting sun lit up the mountain known locally as Noah’s Ark in the Sikort Chuapo Mountains, east of Ajo.

I had the C8 out for a few nights and did a test run on M81, Bode’s Galaxy. This came out really nice. Below M81, just above the edge of the frame, is Holmberg IX, a faint dwarf irregular galaxy and a satellite galaxy of M81. A little above on the right side of M81 is a double star that is clearly seen split. It was 100 years ago, in 1924, when Edwin Hubble proved that many of the nebulas seen in space were much further away than previously thought, millions of light years away, and that these were actually other galaxies like our own Milky Way Galaxy. M81, once known as Bode’s Nebula, is one of the billions of galaxies we now know exist.

Astrophotography Birding Flowers and Plants

February Update

It is hard to believe that it is already February. It is also hard to believe how much rain the Ajo area has been getting. The ground is soggy and the mountains are green. Barring an unwelcome spell of freezing temperatures, there should be another spectacular spring bloom of flowers. Already, some are showing up. Birding has been very slow but there are signs of migration, friends in town reported seeing a Rufous Hummingbird today!

I have added more time to the Dolphin Head, I’m up to about 6 hours of exposure now. Using the new duoband filter sure makes this pop out.

This is Ten-mile Wash a day after the heavy rain last week (January 22-23). Some areas around Ajo got nearly 4 inches. I’ve been coming to Ajo for almost 10 winters now and have never seen the wash with flowing water. This morning it was running again, after another inch of rain last night. Ten-mile Wash is about 1/2 mile from my camper.

This morning Vikki Jackson and I hiked up McGrady Wash. We saw one butterfly, this Sara Orangetip. Fortunately, it landed a few times and let me get some photos. It has been a long time since I have had any good butterfly photos to show! Some consider this to be one species within the Sara Orangetip complex, the Southwestern Orangetip.

A Canyon Wren that eventually came close enough for some photos.

We also found this flowering plant, *Pseudorontium cyathiferum*, common name Deep Canyon Snapdragon. It is the only species in the genus *Pseudorontium*. It is native to the deserts of northern Mexico and adjacent California and Arizona. I’ve never seen it before, apparently it is not very common in Arizona according to records in iNaturalist. The leaves are hairy and glandular, the flowers small.

Birding Flowers and Plants Herps

Back in Ajo

I left Granite Gap on Monday and drove to Ajo. Before next week is over I may wish I had stayed at Granite Gap, it is going to get hot again! I suppose I will survive. I’m glad I came here though, last night we got a California Kingsnake, a species that I’ve only seen dead on the road once before. This one was smaller and easily photographed and handled. Birding has been pretty good too. There is an invasion of Red-breasted Nuthatches, and they are turning up in places where the species has never been reported, like Ajo. Previous to yesterday, there were no eBird records of Red-breasted Nuthatch in the Ajo area, I’ve now seen three.

This is the first Red-breasted Nuthatch I saw. It was in Bud Walker Park.

Yesterday Greg Gilson found this Palm Warbler at the golf course. This morning, five of us were treated to see it as it was still here. Another first for the Ajo area. Greg also saw a Golden-crowned Sparrow yesterday, but we could not find it today.

Here’s the California Kingsnake. It is very similar to the Long-nosed Snake, but the snout is shorter and the black bands go around the entire body. The white patches are wider at the bottom too.

A pair of Western Diamondbacks we found under some old plywood at the golf course.

I went to Highway Tank one day and found this lion track with a coyote track superimposed over the left toe.

While out for a hike at Granite Gap I came across this plant, something new to me. It is Stinging Serpent, *Cevallia sinuata*. The leaves are armed with spines that emit formic acid. The plants were past flowering, this is a seed head.

Another image that shows the leaves of Stinging Serpent.

Birding Flowers and Plants Herps Insects

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.

Birding Blacklighting Flowers and Plants Insects

Mid-July Update

July 15 and I’m still in the same place, Slim Buttes, Custer National Forest, Harding County, South Dakota, USA, Earth. I still haven’t had a good night for astrophotography. Today smoke from the Canadian forest fires rolled in, it is not helping. There isn’t much new here. I went into Buffalo this morning for groceries, water, gas and ice. On the highway I saw lots of Chestnut-collared Longspurs that I haven’t seen before. A few nights back, a series of thunderstorms came through, the second storm started dropping hail, some were up to 2 inches diameter. No damage here though, but a lot of rain.