Category: Insects

Some More Photos

I’m still at Granite Gap. I’ve been making trips down to Cave Creek and the Paradise area. My bird list for 2024 keeps growing, now at 225, compared to 155 at this time last year. I’ve been doing some astro too, I’m working on a very faint planetary nebula called Abell 35. It is not ready to show just yet.

An Elegant Trogon I found in the South Fork of Cave Creek. I could hear it calling in a grove of oaks but couldn’t see it. Suddenly it flew out and landed right in front of me.

A female Arizona Woodpecker at the George Walker House in Paradise. I also got a Juniper Titmouse and a Band-tailed Pigeon, both of which were new for the year.

An Olive-sided Flycatcher that I got on my walk this morning, also new for the year. This was at Granite Gap.

Also from my walk this morning, a Round-tailed Horned Lizard. I’m still looking for the Texas Horned Lizard. I got pretty excited at first when I found this one, but it turned out to be a Round-tailed.

A Striped Plateau Lizard. These are common in the Chiricahua Mountains and Peloncillo Mountains, but are not found anywhere else in the United States.

Butterflies have been hard to find, other than the usual Checkered Whites and a few other species. This morning I got this Elada Checkerspot, I haven’t seen this species for a long time.

Insects

Blister Beetles

Spring in the Sonoran Desert is a good time for the emergence of blister beetles. In past years, I’ve seen swarms of the species Lytta magister, Master Blister Beetle. These are large colorful blister beetles that can be very abundant locally. Yesterday at Highway Tank, I saw for the first time the Iron Cross Blister Beetle, Tegrodera aloga. Also a large species, they are very colorful and a good example of aposematism, or advertising to potential predators that an organism is not worth eating. Aposematic signals are beneficial for both predator and prey, since both avoid potential harm.

The Iron Cross Blister Beetle. These beetles secret cantharidin, a potent toxin that causes severe blistering. The toxin can be lethal if ingested. It is a problem for farmers in some areas. The beetles get into hay and when eaten by horses, the toxin can kill them. On the beneficial side, cantharidin is used in the medical field as a topical medication in the removal of warts, removal of tattoos, and has been researched for certain cancer treatments.

From what I’ve gathered reading about these beetles, they are usually found locally but abundantly, and only for a short time. That is what I saw at Highway Tank. There were hundreds of them but only in a small area.

This is the other species that is more commonly seen: *Lytta magister*, Master Blister Beetle. Apparently, this species is also toxic. I cannot find any information on whether one or the other is the more toxic. Also a good example of aposematism, but not as pronounced, so maybe this species is not as toxic as the Iron Cross Blister Beetle.

Astrophotography Birding Flowers and Plants Insects

Mid April Update

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date April 15, 2024

I am still in Ajo. As long as it doesn’t get too hot, I’m not inclined to leave. I had a few good nights for astro but now the moon is getting bright again. Although the new dual band filter allows me to image nebulas in moonlight, it does not work for galaxies. Light pollution and moonlight are galaxies killers! Dark skies are needed. Birding has remained slow. I do have a few photos to show though.

This is a new one for me, a hybrid Blue-winged Teal X Cinnamon Teal. One can see a partial facial crescent, the white flank mark and spotting of a Blue-winged Teal on the hybrid. The top of the head is greenish on both birds shown here. I never noticed that on a male Cinnamon Teal before but it is there. Not the best of photos, the Ajo sewage ponds are a terrible place for photography. The birds are too far away and shooting is through a chain link fence, not a good combination.

I haven’t seen an Elf Owl for several years now, only because I haven’t looked. Last night I decided to go owling and found this Elf Owl. These owls are migratory, I’ve seen them as early as late March, they will get easier to find as the weather warms.

A crane fly on a fiddleneck plant. Nothing too special about either one, I just like the photo.

M94, sometimes called the Croc’s Eye Galaxy. I tried this years ago before I was guiding, the results were not very good. I also remember seeing that faint nebulosity surrounding the inner galaxy and thinking it must be some kind of processing artifact that I needed to get rid of. It is not, that is real. Rather than repeat everything known about this galaxy, you can read all about it HERE.

This is M109, a galaxy not far from M94, in Ursa Major. The most distant identifiable object in the image is the luminous galaxy SDSS J115722.65+531644.3, annotated in white. Its redshift indicates a distance of nearly 3.5 billion light years.

Known as the Umbrella Galaxy, NGC 4651 is in the Virgo Galaxy Cluster. The name is due to the umbrella-shaped structure that extends from its disk. It is composed of stellar streams, the remnants of a much smaller galaxy that has been torn apart by NGC 4651’s tidal forces. I really had to push the processing to make that show up!

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 Birding Insects

More Astrophotography and a Couple of Others

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date February 16, 2024
2 Comments on More Astrophotography and a Couple of Others

The new moon has come and gone, and I had to deal with a lot of clouds, heavy dew, and cold. However, with the new filter I was able to take advantage of some good weather over the last few days and I had great results. Birding has remained extremely slow, nothing but the regular desert birds. I had nine photos printed for the Sonoran Desert Photo Show that is taking place in March. It is always interesting to see all the photos that are on display, I hope there is good turnout.

I tried this once before with the C8 but it is so dim that details were hard to catch when imaging at f6.3. The last couple of nights I used the 500f4 and the IDAS Nebula Booster filter and the results were amazing. This is the Medusa Nebula, or Sh-2 274 or Abell 21. It is a planetary nebula, what our sun will look like sometime in the distant future as it loses its outer layers of gas and transforms into a white dwarf. The Medusa Nebula is about 4 light years in diameter and 1500 light years distant toward the constellation Gemini.

Also done with the 500f4 and the new filter, the Cone Nebula, the Christmas Tree Cluster, and the Fox Fur Nebula. The faint nebula is approximately seven light-years long (with an apparent length of 10 arcminutes) and is 2,700 light-years away from Earth.

Thor’s Helmet with the new filter. I also used StarXterminator to remove the stars before processing. There are so many stars they overwhelm the image if they aren’t removed. I’ve never been able to get so much detail from the dimmer areas of this nebula.

This is the Seagull Nebula, a large emission nebula between the constellations Monoceros and Canis Major. I could not fit the entire nebula in the frame with the 500f4. I may have to try a mosaic someday. You may notice the prominent bluish arc in the lower center area. This is a bow shock from runaway star FN Canis Majoris.

I was at Highway Tank a couple of days ago and found this Least Sandpiper. Not exactly an exciting bird to see but it was the first one I’ve ever seen at Highway Tank. This bird puts my species total for Highway Tank at 120.

This is a Desert Orangetip, the Pima variety. The Desert Orangetip ranges widely from far west Texas to southern California and into Nevada. The eastern populations are yellow on the upper wing (Pima Orangetip) and western populations are white. One of the earliest spring flying butterflies, this one is nectaring on Fairy Duster.

Birding Blacklighting Insects

Birds and Bugs

OK, also one mammal. The weather has cooled down nicely and is perfect fall weather for the Sonoran Desert. It seems every day brings something new. Just yesterday I was counting birds at Lake Ajo when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, it was a Gray Fox out in broad daylight, sauntering by the truck. Now that the full moon is past, I expect to start doing astrophotography again.

The sun was high, so the light wasn’t the best, but I whistled at the fox, and it paused for some photos.

At Highway Tank this female Brewer’s Blackbird posed for a nice photo with a nice background.

During a hike up McGrady Wash, this Loggerhead Shrike swooped by and landed in a bush. I could see it was eating something, but it was too well hidden to identify the prey. Then it flew into a creosote bush with some of its prey.

A tight crop of the image shows this. I think I can see lizard skin.

This Northern Waterthrush is the first one I’ve ever seen in the Sonoran Desert. It was at Highway Tank.

And a Cassin’s Finch at the golf course.

I put in another night at the black light with some friends and got this fly. A nocturnal fly is sort of unusual, so I photographed it. It turns out it is in the genus Ormia. From Wikipedia: Ormia is a small genus of nocturnal flies in the family Tachinidae, that are parasitoids of crickets. Flies in this genus have become model organisms in sound localization experiments because of their “ears”, which are complex structures inside the fly’s prothorax near the bases of the front legs.

A photo of the underwing of a Staghorn Cholla Moth.

Birding Insects

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.

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.

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 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.