A Ruddy Ground Dove had been reported at the Ajo plaza about a week ago, but yesterday was the first time I saw it. This is the second Ruddy Ground Dove I’ve ever seen and the only female. This morning I went back and got some pretty good photos of it. I’ve been doing quite a bit of astrophotography with the 500 f4. I quit working on the really faint ones for a while and back to some bright and easy ones. I am looking forward to the galaxy season coming up when I can go back to using the C8.
For the past week I have been putting a lot of time into dark nebulas. There are hundreds of them listed in Stellarium but almost no photos anywhere online to see what they look like. I tried for a few of the better- known dark nebulas, these are the ones with some bright stars lighting up the clouds. They are difficult targets; the dust is dim and it is hard to get enough exposure. With the C8 (at f6.3) it is nearly impossible but with the 500 mm lens at f4 I can get one nebula done in a couple of nights if all goes well. Framing is hard too, I can’t see the clouds in the images, all I can see is areas with no stars, obscured by the dust. Anyway, I will post some of the results below. As always, right click on an image and open in a new tab for a larger view.
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.
Last night the forecast for “seeing” ranged from excellent to good. Excellent seeing is very rare so I decided to try some planetary photography. Jupiter is about the only planet in a good place right now, Saturn is getting lower in the west and Venus isn’t a very photogenic planet. So, Jupiter it was. I am very pleased with how it turned out.
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.
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 figure it is about time to post something. I’ve been keeping busy with astrophotography, birding, and hiking. Yesterday I found a Rufous-backed Robin at the city park and even got some good photos. That is the third time I have seen Rufous-backed Robin in the Ajo area. Today, I found a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the same park but could not get any good photos. I will keep trying.
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.
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.
Birding has really improved with the latest storm. Today I saw two American White Pelicans at the ponds (first time ever for Ajo) and two Lewis’s Woodpeckers at the golf course, only the second time I’ve seen that species in the Ajo area. There were three Red-necked Phalaropes at the pond too. I had one good night for astro before the storm and now the moon is getting too bright again. I am enjoying this cooler weather but will miss snake hunting, I suppose till next spring, although I did have an encounter with a snake recently.
