I left Pierre last Sunday morning and headed south. First night was at McCook, NE and the second at the roadside park at Timpas, CO. Now I’m at the Bosque Birders RV Park near Socorro, NM. I paid for two nights here since I was really tired of driving and needed a break. Birding at Bosque del Apache NWR is pretty slow but I’m seeing lots of birds I haven’t seen for many months now. Tomorrow, I plan to drive to Ajo but may make a stop at the Sonoran Desert Museum outside of Tucson. There has been a White-eared Hummingbird there for several days. It would be a life bird for me if it stays. I will need to get an early start for that, it is over 500 miles to Ajo and I won’t be able to make it if I spend too much time looking for this hummingbird.
While in Pierre, I saw this mantis laying eggs on the corner of my parents’ house. I’ve never seen this before. This is the European Mantis, not native. They are introduced into gardens as a means of pest control, but this is a misguided action. Mantids eat any insect, beneficial or harmful. They are not particular. This fall migration produced more Nashville Warblers than I’ve ever seen before, here is one of them on a red-osier dogwood. Here’s a somewhat rare bird for the Pierre area, a Yellow-throated Vireo. I keep a few county life lists, and this was a new species for my Stanley County life list (now at 292 species).Orange-crowned Warbler, also on red-osier dogwood. Notice all the dark spots on the leaves, those are aphids that the warblers feed on, heavily, in the fall. Yellow-rumped Warblers are known to feed on fruits, usually in the winter, but this one is already eating cedar berries in September. The ability to eat and digest fruits allows this species to winter further north than most warbler species.The only photo I’ve taken since I left Pierre, a Roadrunner at Bosque del Apache NWR.
I’ve been here since Monday now and haven’t seen anyone except my brother Ted, who stopped by yesterday. He maintains State Radio communications towers in western South Dakota and there is a tower about a mile north of where I’m camped. We had a short visit before he had to get back to work. I’ve been spending my mornings on the cliff behind camp, photographing the Prairie Falcons and White-throated Swifts that are here every summer. The great photo of a White-throated Swifts still eludes me, but I keep trying.
My campsite, on a dead-end spur road off the North Divide Road, Slim Buttes. I get pretty good shade most of the day and can still keep the solar panel in the sun. If anyone wonders why the hood of the truck is slightly up, I put some mouse traps in the engine every night, I don’t want rodents chewing on the wires. A hundred and twenty feet west of my camp, this is the view looking west. Prairie Falcon giving me the evil eye. Well, this isn’t too bad, but I’m still waiting for that one really great shot. The swifts are very fast and always changing course. My best hope is to get one in the frame while still quite far out, focus and track until it comes closer. Sounds easier than it is! A Prairie Falcon is almost no challenge compared to these little speedsters.
I left Pierre yesterday after a stormy night. Pierre area got 3-4 inches of rain. I had heard lots of reports of storm damage all the way out to the Black Hills. On the way, I counted 6 semis that were blown over and one fifth-wheel RV. I saw many damaged billboards and signs, several damaged buildings and grain bins. The worst wind damage seemed to be around Okaton.
I stopped in Hermosa and filled up with gas: cost $72.00. The hills are very green. I was really looking forward to getting to my spot and as I came up to it, I saw a large AT&T temporary cell phone tower. Hmmm. I drove up over the hill and there in my meadow was large National Guard camp, a bivouac site. Well, I turned around and went to my alternate site, up the steep hill, and found it quiet. So that’s where I am.
Last night there were more thunderstorms here but nothing severe. It is very cool today. By the end of the week it is forecast to be 105 F. in central South Dakota so I am glad to be here.
One of the first flowers I saw was this Pincushion Cactus, species Coryphantha vivipara. I haven’t seen one in flower for many years. A moth nectaring on Death Camas. While I was still in Pierre, my sister Sally and I were walking on Farm Island when she called me over to look at a beetle. I have never seen this beetle before, but it appears to be Cotalpa lanigera, the Goldsmith Beetle, famed as Edgar Allen Poe’s Gold-Bug. There seems to be some controversy about that. At any rate, according to BugGuide.net, it is the first record of this species for South Dakota (there are probably SD records or specimens elsewhere, I’m checking on that).
I left Valley of Fires yesterday, it was getting too hot. I drove 130 miles west to Datil Well Campground. This area is at much higher elevation and although the forecast is for record high temps in New Mexico, it will only get to around 85 here. This is a BLM campground, with campground hosts, water, restrooms, but no showers. A few of the campsites have electric hookups but most don’t. Cost is $5.00 a day, $2.50 with my senior pass. When I first got here, I saw several Pinyon Jays and immediately put out some feeders. However, all I get at the feeders so far is some Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays, Juniper Titmice, and Mountain Chickadees. I have a Rufous Hummingbird and a Black-chinned Hummingbird too.
Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay. I have two of them, they are quite fearless once they get used to me. Using some almonds for bait, I can get them to pose on this rock with lichens.I was talking with the campground hosts this morning, they said this area got 4.5 inches of rain in one storm, in less than an hour. It shows too, there is lots of erosion and an impressive bloom of flowers. This is some species of aster and is very abundant now. Lots of paintbrush, I don’t know for sure which species this is, but it has been a long time since I’ve seen a red paintbrush. This caterpillar was on the stem of the asters. I haven’t ID’d it yet.
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.
Last night while I was setting up for planetary photography, I saw a very bright object in the east. There wasn’t supposed to be anything there of that magnitude of brightness. I had the C8 on the mount so I put in a 15X eyepiece and this is what I saw. I decided to hook up a camera and took a few photos. This is most likely a weather balloon, from what I’ve read they can be up to 25 miles high in the atmosphere. The best night I’ve ever had for imaging Jupiter. It rises to over 40 degree above the horizon and last night seeing was pretty good. I’ve never got detail like this before. One can even see detail in the Great Red Spot! This is a stack of about 12,000 frames from 3 minutes of video. Saturn was lower and as always, dimmer, so it is difficult to get as many video frames. Still, it came out OK. Saturn is almost as far away from Jupiter as Jupiter is from Earth. Twice I have come on Scaled Quail with young ones, but the young ones always scurry off and hide before I can get any photos. And Checkered-Skippers, this one on some species of composite. A new flower for me, Phemeranthus aurantiacus, Orange Fameflower. There are many species of mallows in bloom, colors range from white to red. A red mallow.
And right in the middle of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Actually, it wasn’t too bad getting here. On the interstate, I could see what appeared to be an exodus of motorcycles and vehicles towing motorcycles going east, I’m not sure why everyone seems to be leaving early but it is OK with me. I drove through Custer State Park and the town of Custer with no problems. Shortly after arriving at my campsite and getting setup, I notice the truck had another flat tire. I’m sure getting tired of those. I have had more flat tires in the last two years than I usually get in ten years. I got the spare on and will find a place to fix the flat when I go to town.
Summer form of the Eastern Comma, on Farm Island, last week. Male Band-winged Meadowhawk. There were dozens of these around my folks place near Pierre while I was there. This is a female Band-winged Meadowhawk. Close up, Band-winged Meadowhawk.
I left Pierre yesterday and drove out to my “quiet spot” a few miles southwest of Jewel Cave National Monument. It is certainly quiet compared to Pierre! There is a large expanse of native prairie to the south and west and after the recent rains the prairie flowers are blooming in abundance. The most abundant right now is Death Camas but there are many other species, too many to list and photograph them all. I will show a few in this post and more later.
Blue Flax, not very common but a favorite! Lanceleaf Bluebells, very abundant right now. Star Lilies are one of the earliest of the spring flowers, still a few around the area. Larkspur is everywhere. An Uhler’s Arctic butterfly. The adults are only present for a few weeks in the spring or early summer. This may be the best photo I’ve taken of the species, they usually land in the grass where it is nearly impossible to get a good shot. I followed this one around for quite awhile before it landed in a good spot, then it has to stay there long enough for me to sneak up on it.
I left Ajo on Sunday morning and drove to the Las Cienegas National Conservation Area, near Sonoita. I’ve stayed here many times, it is free, quiet, and usually good birding. Like most everywhere else in Arizona, it is very dry. There is still water in the spring though and the cottonwoods are leafed out and green. The uplands are dry and brown. Had a nice rain this afternoon and now the forecast is for a low of 35F tonight! I would not be surprised to see some snow on the mountains in the morning.
Today Mark Otnes and I birded around Patagonia Lake where we had some good luck with a Least Tern.
I haven’t photographed Gila Woodpeckers for a long time, they are very common. But, this was a shot I couldn’t pass up. A Least Tern at Patagonia Lake State Park. We saw it flying around the lake several times but then it landed on the beach. The tern let us walk up very close. I took nearly 200 photos as it preened and rested. More of the same. It is always nice to get photos of birds doing something beside just resting. A Black Phoebe at the Patton’s Hummingbird Center.
As always, right click and open in a new tab to see a larger version.
I left Granite Gap this morning. Last night I spent a few hours photographing Mars since the “seeing” was forecast to be good and now Olympus Mons is on the right side of the planet. I figured I better try it because the weather is going to change, the jet stream will dip far south and that means the “seeing” will be pretty bad for a while. The results were OK but I hope for better later this month. On my way to Ajo I stopped at the Ina Street bridge over the Santa Cruz River to see if I could find the Northern Jacana. It only took about 10 minutes to do that and take some photos. I got into the campground at Ajo around 4 PM. It was 97 F. but this is the supposed to be the last day of hot weather. I hope so.
As always, right click on an image and open in a new tab to see it displayed at a larger size.
Northern Jacana. The light was terrible, midday glare and I could not get very close to the bird so all I got were some documentation photos. ABA area life bird #604. Extremely long toes allow it to walk on emergent vegetation. Northern Jacana is a very rare visitor to the United States, only in south Texas and southeast Arizona. The Ghost Nebula is starting to look better with two more hours. Mars from last night. The light area in the top center is Olympus Mons.
I’ve moved to the camping area in Granite Gap that I investigated last week. It is pretty nice here. So far, I have the whole place to myself. There is some shade and the elevation is high enough to lower the temps a few degrees. It was getting pretty hot down in the valley at Rusty’s RV Ranch. I’ve seen some Sage Thrashers, Cassin’s Vireo, Green-tailed Towhee, and all the usual desert birds. This is a great spot for hiking and one can go for miles on BLM land. Before I left Rusty’s, I had another good night of planetary photography.
Here’s Jupiter again. This time the shadow of Callisto is moving across the face of the planet. My best image of Mars so far. Later this month the planet will be oriented so the big volcanoes like Olympus Mons will show up. I think I can capture them if I have good conditions. Unlike on Earth, some of the volcanoes on Mars are gigantic because there is no plate tectonics to move them around, they just grow bigger and bigger. Olympus Mons is about the size of the state of Arizona and is 16 miles elevation.
