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 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.
The spring bloom is living up to its name. I’m seeing flowers that I haven’t seen for years due to the drought. This spring, the soil is moist and the vegetation lush. Astrophotography isn’t going as well; cloudy nights have really limited that activity. It looks like I might get one or two good nights before the clouds roll back in.
Here’s one of the flowers I haven’t seen for a couple of years. The Ajo Lilies are starting to bloom and there will be a lot of them. Unlike a lot of the desert flowers, many of which are very small, the Ajo Lily is a big and showy flower. This is Alkali Phacelia, Phacelia neglecta. Devil’s Spineflower, Chorizanthe rigida. Most of the year all one sees of this plant is the dried-up stalk. There are tiny yellow flowers hidden in the spines. The white flowers that show on the edges are Mohave Desert Stars, which are extremely abundant right now. Wooly Daisy, Eriophyllum linosum. There are other species of Eriophyllum too, I think this is the correct species but don’t have a comprehensive key to the plants of Arizona so I may have to revise. Pygmy Golden Poppy, Eschscholzia minutiflora. Not as showy as the popular Mexican Poppy, this species is not all that common either. A patch of Mexican Poppies. Here’s a strange plant, a shrub in the Nightshade (Solanaceae) Family. On a recent trip to Quitoboquito Spring, some fellow naturalists and I saw two of these plants in the Senita Basin. Paul Johnson is standing by one of the plants, it is about six feet tall. Known as Sonoran Nightshade, Solanum hindsianum, it is common in Mexico but very rare in the southern Sonoran Desert in Arizona. A closeup of one of the flowers of Sonoran Nightshade. At Quitoboquito Spring, we saw this Variable Sandsnake, only the second one I’ve ever seen. Sonoran Mud Turtles at Quitoboquito Spring. Perry’s Beardtongue, Penstemon parryi.
I’ve been wanting to do this since I got here, but my knee hasn’t. My left knee has been pretty sore since I left South Dakota but is slowly getting better. Today, I tested it out on Alamo Canyon, and it did fine. The park biologist, Danny Martin, told me he had seen some good butterflies there this summer, including Tropical Leafwings and Zilpa Longtails. The Zilpa Longtail would have been a lifer, but I couldn’t find any today. Probably getting too late in the season, but there were still some Tropical Leafwings, and I was very happy to get the best photos I have ever taken of that species. I saw some Tropical Leafwings years ago at Miller Canyon but had poor luck photographing them.
A Tropical Leafwing, finally posing the way I needed it to. They have a strong tendency to land, fold their wings, and face directly toward or away from me. After many failed attempts I finally got this one in a decent position, with the sun behind me. This species is very similar to the Goatweed Butterfly, but has a small tooth below that larger tooth and above the lower corner of the wing. Then, miracle of miracles, it opened the wings up and I got just a few shots before it flew off again. The wing pattern is that of a male. I found this Sonoran Collared Lizard basking on a rock; I don’t remember ever seeing one this late in the season. A couple of days ago I was hiking off Pipeline Road when I found what I believe is a metate, a grinding rock used by Native Americans. It was the only large rock in the area and the flat, slightly concave surface makes it a likely metate. The latest big excitement at Lake Ajo, a Surf Scoter. Jupiter is now rising up over 50 degrees above the horizon, the highest altitude I’ve been image it since I started doing this. The higher altitude helps get it out of the murk and turbulence of the atmosphere. I tried it a few nights ago despite only average “seeing” conditions. I took 6 three-minute videos and stacked the best frames. Expect more Jupiter images in the near future!
I’ve been in Pierre since my last post. Now I’m back at the Slim Buttes. It was pretty hot in Pierre and not much cooler out here but that will be changing over the next few days. I am looking forward to cooler weather! On the birding and photography front, there hasn’t been much new. I got a couple of interesting photos while in Pierre.
Not a great photo but it is the only photo I’ve ever taken of a young Yellow-billed Cuckoo. This bird is just out of the nest and doesn’t have the yellow bill yet. Cuckoos are known for fast development. The entire time from egg-laying to fledging may be as little as 17 days. One morning while walking around my parent’s yard, I saw some movement in the flower bed by the house. Then I saw this scene, a Plains Garter Snake in the process of swallowing a Woodhouse’s Toad. I suppose I could come up with some caption that expresses the toad’s point of view, but I will resist doing that. This morning while on my daily hike, I saw a butterfly that flew a short distance and landed with its wings up. At first, I thought it had to be a comma of some species, as that is what they typically do. Then I got a better look, I could see it wasn’t a comma. I was a little puzzled until I realized it was a Variegated Fritillary. At least in my experience, they don’t usually land with their wings up. Here is the same butterfly with its wings spread. I got the Dalea flower in focus too, which may make an awkward composition, but I chose to keep it.
I left the Socorro area yesterday. Had a great day of birding at Bosque del Apache NWR but didn’t see anything very rare or exciting. No lifers. Some nice photos though. I headed east to Valley of Fires Recreation Area and stopped for a short walk, where I did get a lifer, an Eastern Collared Lizard. I’ve been looking for one of these for a long time. I’ve been told a good place to see them is Granite Gap, but I’ve never seen one there. I left Valley of Fire and drove north to get back on I-25 near Las Vegas. I was about 30 miles out when my phone started sounding the Civil Defense alarm and announcing evacuations of west Las Vegas and other areas due to the fires. I made it through with no problems, but the smoke was pretty bad. Last night I stayed in a free campsite on the Comanche National Grasslands (Timpas Picnic Area) near La Junta, Colorado. Now I’m near McCook, NE and should be in Pierre tomorrow, though it looks like I will be driving in rain.
It is hard to pass up a shot of a White-faced Ibis when it is offered. Same with the Snowy Egret. My lifer herp, an Eastern Collared Lizard. This one is a female. Taken at Valley of Fires Recreation Area, New Mexico. A Spiny Softshell Turtle basking. Bosque del Apache NWR. This was the scene as I approached I-25 from Highway 84. Las Vegas is a few miles to the right. Taken with a 35mm lens. I would estimate the flames to be 5 miles away. This is what it looked like with a 400mm lens. As always, right click and open in new tab or window for a larger image.
