Category: Insects

Slim Buttes

I decided to leave the Black Hills. The National Guard left the meadow at my favorite camp site, so I moved there on Friday. While coming down the hill from my alternate site, the hitch jack caught on a rock and was bent. It still works but at an angle. Not an ideal situation. I can buy a new one and it should not be hard to replace (I already had to replace it once when it got bent in a gas station exit in Glasgow, MT years ago), but the bracket it mounts on may be bent too. I won’t know until I take it off. For now, it is functional. Anyway, I got set up at my site, hadn’t been there more than an hour when a Hahn mechanical tree processor came rumbling up the road, obliterating trees next to the road. I talked to the guy running it, he said there would be a bulldozer coming through next and then they would be hauling logs out on that road. Well, I knew this might be coming but I hoped it wouldn’t. I can’t put up with that kind of noise and I wasn’t about the take Scamp back up the hill that had just damaged it. So, this morning I packed up again and headed north, to the Slim Buttes. I’m here now, on the North Divide Road, camped on a dead-end spur road. Very quiet. The area has had a lot of rain and I worried that the mosquitoes might be bad but so far, I haven’t seen any.

One morning I was hiking in Hell Canyon when I came across a herd of Bighorn Sheep. This one was close, in the shade with a sunlit background. I watched for a while then it proceeded across the trail and up the canyon side.

Here’s the rest of them, waiting to see what the other one was going to do. They all followed.

One morning at Baldwin Spring, this Ovenbird hopped up onto a branch just a few feet away. I’ve had them do this before but as soon as I moved the camera toward them, they always took off. This one let me get one shot. This is nearly full frame.

First time I’ve imaged an Indra Swallowtail on a flower. This one is nectaring on Wall Flower. The angle works out well in this situation as the butterfly was really beat up on the hind wings.

A Two-tailed Swallowtail in the mud at Baldwin Spring.

Astrophotography Insects Photography

On the Road Again

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date April 30, 2022

I left Granite Gap this morning. I have been spending the nights photographing some galaxies and hiking and birding during the day. The weather has been far too windy most of the time and it makes astrophotography hard. I put all that gear away and now I am focusing on birds. I’m at Bosque del Apache NWR near Socorro, New Mexico. After spending the last 7 months in the Sonoran Desert, it is sure nice to see lots of water again! The refuge is full of birds, lots of shorebirds, ibis, herons, ducks, warblers and others. I didn’t do much birding today but tomorrow will be a full day.

One of the galaxies I’ve been working on is M63, the Sunflower Galaxy. I haven’t tried this one for several years. Despite losing a lot of my subs to wind, I managed to get 102 good 90 second subs for stacking. This galaxy is found near the Big Dipper.

M100, a galaxy in the Virgo galaxy cluster. The smaller galaxy in the upper right is NGC 4312.

I used the MP-65 super macro lens and a MR14-EX II ring flash for these ants. The lens does not autofocus, one has to achieve focus by moving the lens back and forth. The lens must be just a couple of inches from the subject being photographed. A ring flash is pretty much necessary. So, I was on the ground following the movements of the ants trying to do just that. Out of 65 shots I got 4 pretty good ones. I don’t use this lens very much, but it does get good results on very small things.

Birding Insects Photography

Another Rufous-backed Robin

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date November 24, 2021

I stopped by the plaza a couple of days ago and was watching some robins on the grass when I realized one of them was a Rufous-backed Robin. Since then, I’ve been able to get some pretty good photos. Greg Gilson found a Williamson’s Sapsucker at the golf course but by the time I got there, we could not locate it again. If I could get it, that would be all of the North American sapsuckers for me in one location, the Ajo golf course. I looked this morning for a couple of hours and still couldn’t find it, so I suppose it has left.

Rufous-backed Robin on the sidewalk, getting a drink.

Rufous-backed Robin with American Robin.

A Green-tailed Towhee in an arroyo near my campsite.

The saying is that “any gull is a good gull in Pima County”. Here are 41 Ring-billed Gulls at the ponds. I have been seeing lots of Ring-billed Gulls but other than the Heermann’s Gull that was here earlier, no other species.

Eighty American Avocets, may be a high count for the Ajo ponds. As always, right click on the image and open in a new tap for a larger image.

Astrophotography Birding Insects Photography

Barn Owls in a Hole

A few days ago I went out to Hot Shot Well to check it out. I had heard about Barn Owls potentially using the site quite a few years ago. I think it was about four years ago when I first visited the old well, which is actually a really big hole that someone dug many years ago. It is maybe 25 ft. across and more than 50 ft. deep. On my first visit, there was evidence of owls using it but there were no owls. The following year I returned and found that a colony of bees had moved in and I got chased off by them. There were aggressive. Every year since, I have carefully checked it and the bees have been there but no owls. On my visit this year, it appeared that the bees were gone and lo and behold, there were two Barn Owls at the bottom. I contacted Joe and Mary Staab, in Mesquite, Nevada as I knew Joe really wanted a Barn Owl. They came down here on Tuesday and we all hiked out there, the owls were still there. Unfortunately, this time we saw bees too but they didn’t bother us.

Shooting almost straight down at the Barn Owls. I think they may have some young ones stashed away out of sight.

I’m working on the Embryo Nebula again but this time with the 500 f4 lens. I get a much wider field of view, which I like, and I gather light almost twice as fast as I can with the C8. I like the result so far. I put a lot of time into this nebula, also known as NGC 1333, with the C8 last year and never got very satisfying results.

Astrophotography Insects Photography

Too Many Butterflies

As I posted previously, there are enormous numbers of butterflies around the area, mostly where there is Chuckwalla Delight in flower. I have been searching for a new species for me, but mostly the same ones, especially Sonoran Metalmarks. There are literally thousands of them. I have been doing some astrophotography too. It has warmed up here quite bit, record high temps again, but that is only about 90 degrees so it is tolerable.

I’ll start out with a Ceraunus Blue. I don’t think I saw any of these last year when it was so dry.

Fatal Metalmark, another species I have not seen for a long time.

Yet another Great Purple Hairstreak, this one with a curled proboscis, on Chuckwalla Delight.

A Leda Ministreak that landed dangerously close to an assassin bug.

The assassin bug made an attempt to grab it, but the butterfly got away. Lucky for the butterfly but not so lucky for the bug or the photographer.

A typical sight wherever there is Chuckwalla Delight in flower.

This is the Little Sombrero Galaxy, NGC 7814, in Pegasus. It is very similar to the Sombrero Galaxy but is much further away and therefore appears smaller. The small galaxy in the middle right is IC 5381, a spiral galaxy that is about 508 million light years distant from the Milky Way and has a diameter of about 195,000 light years. There are other smaller, faint galaxies that are also visible, some of which may be a billion lights years away. The largest star in the upper left is HIP199, a 7.2 magnitude star that would be barely visible with binoculars.

M74, the Phantom Galaxy, located in the constellation Pisces. I have done this one before but the results are better now with guiding. It is named the Phantom Galaxy because it is very faint and hard to see in a telescope. About 32 million light years distant.

Birding Insects Photography

Birding is Picking Up!

Quite a few new birds are showing up yesterday and today. Another Red-breasted Sapsucker has appeared at the golf course and this one is, so far, easy to find and get close too. This morning it was in the shadows though, so I went back to the truck and got my flash. The flash didn’t bother it all. I also saw a Townsend’s Solitaire, Lawrence’s Goldfinch, Swainson’s Thrush, and a Lazuli Bunting. Finally, the moon is starting to fade and the weather looks good after Monday, I should have at least five good days of astrophotography and I am looking forward to that.

Get ready for a barrage of Red-breasted Sapsucker photos! Finally, a pure specimen (there are lots of hybrids) and one that lets me get close. Shot with flash.

From last evening, when I first saw the bird it was on the palm fruit. It was just at sundown, I had to shoot at higher ISO.

It has been a long time since I’ve seen any Great Purple Hairstreaks. So far this fall, I’ve seen several.

A Common Ground Dove at the golf course.

Townsend’s Solitaire bathing with a Lazuli Bunting.

A pair of Greater Yellowlegs at Highway Tank.

A Desert Blond Tarantula that I came across a few days ago.

Birding Insects Photography

Butterflies Galore

Today I drove out to a place I call 8115 Arroyo. It seems to have no name on maps but there is BLM Road 8115 that goes to it, so I have made a name for it. I’ve been watching the summer monsoon storms on radar for the last three or four months and this area has got quite a lot of rain. It shows too, the vegetation in the arroyo is lush and green, the spiny hackberry are loaded with green fruit that is just starting to ripen and should be attracting birds soon. The numbers of butterflies was amazing. It was mostly American Snouts and Cloudless Sulphurs, but I also saw Queens, Sonoran Metalmarks, Empress Leilia, Southern Dogface, Mexican Yellows, Gray Hairstreak, Leda Ministreak, and Pipevine Swallowtail. I saw my first ever caterpillar of a Pipevine Swallowtail too. The abundance of American Snouts was just amazing, sometimes hundreds on a single plant.

I don’t think I have seen this before, at least not in flower. Texas Virgin’s Bower, *Clematis drummondii*. There was lot of it flowering in 8115 Arroyo. Butterflies seemed to ignore it though.

Here’s the Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar. I had to post it on BugGuide to find out what it was. It is a large caterpillar, it was on Chuckwalla Delight. Throughout the arroyo, Chuckwalla Delight was attracting lots of butterflies.

I can walk by hundreds of butterflies of many species but when I find a Sonoran Metalmark I have to start taking photos. The flower is Chuckwalla’s Delight.

It isn’t often I can get shots of the underside of a Sonoran Metalmark, the light wasn’t very good here.

I took more photos of the Lewis’s Woodpeckers at the golf course, now there are four of them.

A Cloudless Sulphur nectaring on Hummingbird Trumpet.

Herps Insects Photography

Ajo, Late Summer 2021

Last year it was way too hot to come to Ajo until later in October, but this year, it isn’t too bad, so far. The big difference is that there has been rain this summer and that helps cool the ground and keeps the surface temperature lower. Last year it was so dry that all the vegetation was brown, this year everything is green. The herping has been great, as I already verified by finding my first ever Rosy Boa. Most nights I go out and find at least a few snakes, but nearly all are Western Diamondbacks or Sidewinders. I have seen one Long-nosed Snake. At the top of the list of what I want is Tiger Rattlesnake, Speckled Rattlesnake, Western Shovel-nosed Snake, and Coral Snake, and there are more that could turn up. Arizona has 52 species of snakes! Today I found a Regal Horned Lizard, only the second one I’ve seen and the first for the Ajo area.

Regal Horned Lizard, very small so just recently hatched. The county has just repaved the road that comes out to the campground. The fresh, black asphalt makes it easy to spot snakes and lizards. I would have never seen this one otherwise. It is probably about 2 inches long. Separated from other horned lizards by the four horns on the back of the head all touching at the base.

Last night I was making a turn around on a dirt road when I saw something hopping in the shadows. I thought it was a cottontail rabbit at first but it was a giant Sonoran Toad. One has to see these to appreciate how big they are.

A Cloudless Sulphur in Alamo Canyon. There were hundreds of these big sulphurs.

Birding Blacklighting Insects Photography

Granite Gap

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date September 22, 2021

I finally left Datil Well and drove down to Granite Gap. I’m still in New Mexico, a few miles outside of Arizona. The weather here is a bit warmer than Datil Well but it is not too bad. The area has has some rain and it shows, lots of grass and late summer flowers. I saw my first White-crowned Sparrows of the fall this morning. I tried some black lighting last night and did OK despite the full moon.

A new one for me, BugGuide tells me it is the Thin-banded Lichen Moth.

This is *Plagiomimicus olvello*, apparently not much is actually known about it, not even the larval food plant.

This one was exciting, a tiger beetle. I knew what it was from my tiger beetle collecting days, although I have never actually seen one before. I used to think this species might turn up in South Dakota but as far as I know it has never been recorded there yet. This is *Tetracha carolina* – the Carolina Metallic Tiger Beetle (Formerly *Megacephala carolina*). Colorful and iridescent, it is a prize catch for tiger beetle collectors. There was time when I would have caught one and put a pin through it but a photograph is just as good. At least three of them were at my light last night.

While on my morning hike, I found a pair of Rock Wrens foraging in a rock pile. They went behind a large boulder, so I quickly positioned myself on the other side (with the sun behind me), just a few feet from the top of rock, and started pishing. Up they came, and I got a few nice shots at very close range.

Astrophotography Insects Photography Travel

Valley of Fire, New Mexico

Post author By Doug Backlund
Post date September 7, 2021
2 Comments on Valley of Fire, New Mexico

I’m currently parked in the campground at the Valley of Fires Recreation Area, near Carrizozo, New Mexico. I’ve been here four days now. This area is in the Malpais Lava Flow and is a pretty nice area, especially since there has been a lot of rain. It is a nice campground too, with showers, electric hookups if needed (I don’t need them), not crowded at all. With my senior pass it costs $6.00 a night. I hoped for some astrophotography and finally last night it was clear and calm. I had an experience with a new night sky object too, a weather balloon.