Lucky Shots

Shelley and I were out for a hike today working off the Christmas goodies and we heard a loud hammering. It was a Pileated Woodpecker. I was excited to see it because I've only seen them once or twice before. They're the largest woodpecker in North America. (assuming the Ivory-billed is actually extinct) Unfortunately it was high up in the tree and  I didn't have my telephoto lens. And it was quite dark in the forest under heavy clouds. I took a bunch of photos but wasn't too hopeful at 1/20 of a second at ISO 1600 with a not very sharp lens. It didn't help that it was busy hammering on the tree and I had to try to time my shots when it paused for a split second between blows. As it turned out, one shot out of 23 was half decent and cleaned up reasonable well.

My other lucky shot this week was a hummingbird that landed on the bush outside my window. It sat still long enough for me to get my camera, change lenses, put the lens through the blinds, and take two shots. Then it flew away. One shot was blurry and its eyes were closed. The other shot (this one) wasn't bad, considering the rush. I'm not sure why it had its tongue out.

Road Trip Day 12, 13 - Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

To quote the website, the Desert Museum is a fusion experience: zoo, botanical garden, art gallery, natural history museum, and aquarium. Near Tucson Arizona, it's almost 100 acres, has 242 kinds of animals and 1200 kinds of plants. We spent a full day here - the afternoon when we arrived, and the next morning. I took over a thousand photos there. (I'll try to restrain myself from inflicting too many of them on you but this is still a long post.)

One of the things I like about ASDM is that there is lots of natural (not captive) wildlife around - birds, insects, lizards.

I'd never heard of an Empress Leilia butterfly until I identified this one with the help of iNaturalist.

Of course, there are lots of cactus. You'd have to cover a lot of desert to see this many kinds. Prickly pear are common (even in Saskatchewan), but you don't see the purple ones as often.

Cactus or succulent? Trick question, most cactus are succulents (have fleshy parts to store water).

There weren't many flowers around on this trip. Even in the southwest, November is quiet. But there were a few cactus flowers.

Ocotillos only have leaves when they've had moisture. Most of the ones we'd seen in the wild were bare. But the ones here had obviously had some water.

There were plenty of agave's as well. I learned that one way to distinguish agave's from yucca's is that agave's have spines on the leaves (like this one).

One of the highlights was the free flight show. We've seen these other places (like our local Pacific Northwest Raptors) but this was a good one because the birds landed on all sides and quite close to the audience.

We've seen Crested Caracara (aka Mexican eagles) in the wild but it was nice to get a closer view. They are the second largest falcon after Gyrfalcons.

Harris's Hawks are from the southwest. They are unusual because they hunt in groups whereas most raptors hunt alone. They are common in free flight shows because they are easier to train, perhaps because they are social.

I think the star of the desert bighorn enclosure was the unofficial resident rock squirrel and its impressive rock climbing abilities.

The bobcat could almost be mistaken for a house cat. It didn't seem as impressive as the one I'd seen in the wild.

I like Javalinas (Collared Peccaries). Unfortunately, we couldn't get a good view of them because they were sleeping under a bush.(here's a better photo from Big Bend NP in Texas)

When we arrived the second morning we were greeted by this handsome American Kestrel. At the opposite end of the size scale from the Caracara, they are the smallest falcon.

We visited the hummingbird aviary first thing in the morning, before it got busy. As usual, they weren't especially cooperative, but we still managed a few photos.

We had seen on the map that there was a campground nearby (Gilbert Ray), which seemed perfect for visiting the museum both days. Unfortunately, it was a Friday and to our surprise they were completely booked. Weekends can be tricky when you're not booking anything in advance since winter isn't really off-season. We were sitting in the van outside the campground office searching the internet for last minute alternatives, when the woman came out and knocked on our window. Lucky for us, someone had showed up with a motor-home that wouldn't fit in the site they had reserved and so we got it. You can't beat an evening view like this.

See also Shelley's post

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Sunrise

A rare colorful sunrise in Victoria. Usually it's either clear (in the summer) or solid cloud (in the winter). These were taken with my iPhone. The colors seem a little exaggerated, but it does a surprisingly good job considering it was quite dark. I really should have gone outside to get a clear view. Instead I was moving from window to window trying to find the best angle.

Print of the Week

I take a lot of reflection photos. Most of them don't look like much of anything. I like how this one turned out after processing to bring out the color and detail. In the morning after our stay at the Creekside Inn in Bishop we took a quick walk through the hotel grounds beside the creek. Out of habit, I took a few shots of reflections. In hindsight it was the right kind of conditions - the water was in the shade but colorful scenery around it was in the sun. As well as the color, I like the fine detail (which may not be visible on a small screen).

Here's how it looked before adjusting it.

Road Trip Day 10, 11 - Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

From Death Valley we took two days to Buckeye on the outskirts of Phoenix. Unfortunately that meant stopping near the interstate. Typically, that meant there were chain hotels and fast food and little else. We searched for somewhere better for supper but ended up at Cracker Barrel :-( Thankfully we managed to avoid descending into interstate hell other than this. (Which isn't always easy, the roads are designed to funnel you into the interstates.)

From there we headed south. We stopped at the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Ajo. They had a nice natural area beside the visitor center. Right away I spotted a small bird that looked like it had something in it's beak. Unfortunately I didn't have my long telephoto lens, so this is zoomed in and not very good quality. But I was excited to see it was a Loggerhead Shrike aka a butcherbird (a first for me). They are known for impaling their prey on thorns and barbed wire fences, for storage, display, and to help with eating it. This one had caught a tiny zebra tailed lizard.

There were actually quite a few birds in this small area, including Verdins with their yellow heads and red patch on their shoulder (another new one to me).

And of course lots of cactus including the signature Saguoros of the Sonoran desert. Saguoros live up to 150 years and don't grow arms till they're 50 or more years old.

And chollas like this chain-fruit:

We weren't really expecting a coffee shop in Ajo (population 3000) but we checked anyway and were surprised to find two. Oasis Coffee (check out the photos) was one of my favorites from the trip. It was under the colonnade around the town plaza, reminiscent of Mexico. It was quiet, with comfortable chairs and wifi. We left Curlys Coffee Roasters for another visit. We were driving away when I spotted a gallery (Art Under the Arches) with photographs. (Most galleries are primarily paintings.) We parked again and went in. They had some great work by local photographers. One of them was the lady minding the store.

We continued south to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument on the border with Mexico. It's also a UNESCO biosphere reserve. The afternoon we arrived we hiked the Red Tanks Tinaja trail. We saw a few more kinds of birds, including Gambel's Quail (from a distance) and Phainopepla (aka Silky Flycatchers).

I stopped to look at something else and noticed this little lizard motionless on a log. It was blocked by some (of course, thorny) bushes so I couldn't get the best angle. iNaturalist helped identify it as an Ornate Tree Lizard. Apparently it's one of the most widespread and abundant North American lizards but I don't recall photographing any before.

Nearby I spotted this Robber Fly and managed a few shots before it flew away. Robber Flies are ambush predators that catch other insects mid-air.

Humorously, I didn't get any photos of Organ Pipe Cactus. But there were also lots of Saguoros

I'm fascinated by the skeletons of cactus - so different from most plants.

We stayed at the main Twin Peaks campground near the visitor center. One nice feature was that the Victoria Mine trail started at the campground so I could easily go for a run in the morning.

See also Shelley's post

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