I left Pierre yesterday and drove to the Slim Buttes. There has been some good rain out here and the flowers are abundant as are the butterflies. After being in Pierre for almost 2 months, the quiet out here is welcome. There are no trains, barking dogs, loud vehicles, airplanes, or other noisy things. Just birds and the wind. This morning, I went for a walk and got 26 species of birds. My eBird checklist is here. I hope for a few clear nights so I can do some astrophotography in the dark skies of Harding County.
I found this Plains Garter Snake in a puddle on the road, I’m not sure what it was doing but it refused to leave the water. Butterflies are really abundant. Here’s a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell. A Two-tailed Swallowtail nectaring on a thistle. Aphrodite Fritillary.Great Spangled Fritillary.While in Pierre, I took one trip out to the Fort Pierre National Grasslands. Here’s a Burrowing Owl that was harassing me about being too close to its nest hole. This is Wedgeleaf Frogfruit, Phyla cuneifolia. It was growing in a prairie dog colony near Richland Dam. This location is the farthest north this species has been reported, according the iNaturalist. Typically a species of the southwest, the Navajo reportedly used it to treat spider bites. A Marbled Godwit. I’m experimenting with some new software for astrophotography. StarXterminator lets me remove the stars for processing then add them back. NoiseXterminator is a much better method of reducing noise. I think the results are impressive on the North America Nebula, which I took several years ago. Now if I can just get some astrophotography done! The weather has not been cooperative.
I left Valley of Fires on Saturday and drove north into Colorado, stopping for the night at the Timpas picnic area. Timpas picnic area is actually a Forest Service (Comanche National Grassland) picnic area/campground of sorts, there are some picnic tables, shelters, a restroom, interpretive signs, and best of all, some pretty good birding. It was here, many years ago, that I got my lifer Cassin’s Sparrow. I saw some again on this stop, along with abundant Lark Buntings, some Curve-billed and Sage Thrashers, meadowlarks, and others. For me, the Cassin’s Sparrow was the most interesting.
Timpas is open for camping and is free and quiet. There is no water and no phone/internet service. There is a railroad that runs close by, but every time I’ve stayed there the only train is an Amtrak that comes by around 8 PM. I left Timpas early this morning and drove to Red Willow State Park near McCook. I like this park but it sure is expensive, $42.00 a night. At least it is quiet. After free camping in the Sonoran Desert all winter, I shouldn’t complain.
I got some pretty good photos of Cassin’s Sparrows. They aren’t much to look at, but their song makes up for that. They fly high in the sky, like Lark Buntings, while singing. I saw more Eastern Collared Lizards at Valley of Fires. This one is a large male but lacking any color. I’ve read about melanistic individuals living in areas of dark rocks, maybe this is one of them. This is a blister beetle, Epicauta atrivittata. I saw a couple of them on the walls of the restroom at Valley of Fires. There isn’t much information on this beetle, it is known to feed on mesquites and some species of nightshade. Also, at Valley of Fires, Red Barberry. The Apache ate the fruits and made a yellow dye from the roots. I came across two different plants named after the same botanist, Augustus Fendler. I got curious about him and found out that he led quite an adventurous life. Here’s a LINK to a Wikipedia article about him. This flower is Fendler’s Desert Dandelion, Malacothrix fendleri. And here is Fendler’s Penstemon, Penstemon fendleri.
I left Granite Gap this morning. I’m currently at the Bosque Birder’s RV Park, near San Antonio, New Mexico. I took a short drive through the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge this afternoon. I was quite surprised that nearly all of the ponds are dry. There is a lot of water running through the ditches in the refuge, but I guess the management plan is for dry ponds for now. There is water in the Boardwalk Marsh and that’s about it.
A few days ago, I checked on the Great Horned Owl nest. The lone young owl was out of the nest, but it hasn’t moved very far. A Greater Earless Lizard. This one is starting to develop some color, but it is not even close to the ones I saw at Big Bend National Park a few years back. Photos of those can be seen at the LINK. I got some more shots of the Lesser Nighthawk, this time I got closer and in a nicer setting. A couple of days after finding my first Round-tailed Horned Lizard, I found another. This one is so different in coloration and pattern, that one would almost think it was a different species, but it is not. The size and placement of the four cranial horns and the short, round tail with black bars is diagnostic. A different angle. There are some Desert Marigolds, Baileya multiradiata, in flower now. These are quite large and showy flowers.
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 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.
