Category: 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.

A few days ago I was hiking in the Red Cross Spring area of the Slim Buttes. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this Long-eared Owl flew in and landed in a pine tree. The birds in the area got excited and started mobbing it, but they didn’t keep at it too long.

I got some pretty good shots of this Black-capped Chickadee as it foraged for seeds on the seed heads of coneflowers.

This is a Juba Skipper, quite a rare species in South Dakota, with only nine records, according to The Butterflies of South Dakota. It is also a county record for Harding County.

Using my new filter, I worked on this a few nights ago. This is the Lion Nebula, in Cepheus. It is very faint and in a rich star field. Without the filter and my new software, I would not have had much of chance of getting anything useful. This is a very faint nebula. I want to add more exposure to it when I get a chance.

Astrophotography Bats Birding Insects

A Few Photos

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.

Birding Herps Insects

Pierre, Again

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date August 3, 2023

I’m back in Pierre for a few days. It is hot. Finally, a cooling trend is arriving tomorrow. I’ve been out looking for shorebirds at a wetland northeast of Pierre. Shorebird migration is in full swing and there are lots of birds to see. I was excited to see a Black-necked Stilt. The wetland is in Hughes County and that was a new county bird for me. My Hughes County life list is now at 317.

Black-necked Stilt at Baumgartner Slough, Hughes County, SD. It was a long way out so the photo isn’t very good.

There are lots of Black Terns feeding on aquatic insects. I kept trying to get a good shot of this activity and finally I got this juvenile.

Another Black Tern, this one is an adult.

The day before I left the Slim Buttes, I found this juvenile Racer on the road. It let me get very close.

Also at the Slim Buttes, I found two Eastern Tiger Swallowtails at Red Cross Spring. These represent a new county record.

This is a good example of why a photo is needed of both the upper and underside of the wing. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is easily confused with the Two-tailed Swallowtail and the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail. The marginal band of the forewing is broken up into spots if an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, the other two species have a continuous band of yellow.

Birding Blacklighting Insects Photography

A Northern Saw-whet Owl

Last night, Charlie Miller came out to join me for some black lighting for insects. He got here about dark and almost immediately heard a Northern Saw-whet Owl calling. Of course, I couldn’t hear it, but he guided us to where it was and soon we were standing under it. I could hear it quite well then. It stayed high in a pine, I was able to get some photos. That is the first saw-whet I’ve seen in a long time. The black lighting was kind of slow but we got some interesting things. As always, a larger image can be seen by right clicking and opening in a new tab.

The Northern Saw-whet Owl. Charlie was sure he could hear two but we only saw one.

A few days ago, I went up by Government Hill for a hike. Two Prairie Falcons started harassing me, I got a pretty good shot of one flying straight at me.

In a muddy stock pond, I saw this clump of Broadleaf Arrowhead, I thought it made a nice photo.

Hypoprepia miniata, Scarlet-winged Lichen Moth. As the name suggests, larvae feed on lichens.

Parthenice Tiger Moth, *Apantesis parthenice*. Will be a new South Dakota record for BugGuide.

A Western Wood-Pewee posing on a lichen covered branch.

Insects Photography

Old World Swallowtail

Today my brother Ted was here, having come up from Rapid City to work on the communications tower north of my campsite. We were sitting outside visiting when I noticed a different species of swallowtail flying around. At first, I thought it was an Anise Swallowtail. It landed and I got a few photos. Later, I was checking the photos and determined that it was actually an Old World Swallowtail, also referred to as Baird’s Swallowtail, which is the subspecies that occurs in this area. This is a lifer butterfly for me! The Old World Swallowtail is found across Asia, Europe, and western North America, nearly the entire palearctic region. It is the only species of swallowtail in most of Europe. There are over 40 recognized subspecies. Unlike the nearly identical Anise Swallowtail (for which the larval food is plants in the Parsley family), the larvae of the Old World Swallowtail feed on various species of sagebrush and sageworts.

I got more photos, some showing the underwing and abdomen. The Anise Swallowtail has a mostly black abdomen; the Old World Swallowtail has a yellow abdomen with black stripes. There are other differences too but are more subtle and not as easy to pick out.

A nice frame filler! I surely didn’t expect to get a lifer butterfly out here in the Slim Buttes, but I did.

An Anise Swallowtail from the Black Hills, for comparison.

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.