Paul and Linda, fellow snowbirds and friends of mine in Ajo, own a home that has a remarkable variety of desert plants in the yard. There are several species of agave and some of these are blooming now. Nectar bats have appeared in good numbers, I’ve spent a couple of nights there photographing them. The laser trigger won’t work in this setup, so I just prefocus on a point and hope a bat comes to it.
The weather continues to be nice. Birding hasn’t been too exciting except for a pair of Forster’s Terns that appeared on the ponds one day. These are the first terns of any species I’ve ever seen on the Ajo sewage ponds. Astrophotography has been hit and miss with clouds and wind.
It is that time of year again, where there is so much to do I can’t decide what to do next. One result is I don’t get much sleep. I finally caught up on sleep last night.
I mentioned in my other post about quasars that there was another project I wanted to work on. This is it. This is one of those images I did just to see if I could do it. The Twin Quasar was discovered in 1979 and is the first gravitationally lensed object identified, thus proving Albert Einstein’s prediction from his General Theory of Relativity. Einstein thought that humans would never be able to actually observe this effect, but it has now been observed numerous times.
Friday afternoon I drove back out to Valentine Well. The weather wasn’t as warm as I had hoped but I still thought I could get some decent bat activity. About a mile before the well, I saw a sight that one does not often see here in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, an Osprey.
Bird migration is picking up nicely. I’m seeing first of spring Bell’s Vireo, Warbling Vireo, Lucy’s Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler, Bullock’s Oriole, and many more. I went out to Valentine Well a couple of nights ago to try some bat photography. That didn’t work out but I did see a Poorwill. Nights are warming up, no longer do I need four blankets! The lack of rain results in very few wildflowers, unfortunately. It is very dry.
For a long time I’ve been thinking about trying to capture a quasar. I finally found out how to get a couple of them, by imaging a galaxy in Ursa Major, NGC 4151. Quasars are extremely bright young galaxies, at the edges of the universe, so they are far out there. I don’t know exactly how far these two are, but over a billion light years for sure. Here’s a good link to read more about quasars.
Here it is, March 2, the day of the new moon and all I get is clouds. I’ve only had two good nights for astrophotography so far. At least the area got a little rain, 1/4 to 1/2 inch around the area. The biggest bird excitement was a Laughing Gull at Lake Ajo. Some birders came over from Tucson and for at least one it was an Arizona life bird. I’ve never seen one in Arizona myself. This afternoon I was passing by the Kit Fox den and saw two of the foxes outside taking a nap.
As the title of this page may indicate, not much is going on. Some bird movement, mostly an increase in Sage Thrashers, is noted. The moon is approaching full phase now and of course it has been clear and calm every night. The weather has been warm, above 80 F. for the last few days. There is a group called the Boondockers that shows up here every winter. The campground was getting a bit crowded with them for the last couple of weeks but now most have left. It appears that Covid-19 has peaked in this area, according to the local weekly paper. Reported cases peaked at 74 the week before last, now it is dropping fast. I still remain Covid free.
Today as I drove by the den, I looked for Kit Fox, as I usually do. I saw one laying in the sun so decided to try for some photos. It was high noon but there were clouds to help deal with the harsh mid-day light. I had the 500 f4 along, so I put on the teleconverter for 700mm focal length. I had just started taking photos when another fox came out of the den.
