Boyce Thompson Butterflies

A cool spell (around 90 degrees) allowed for a quick trip to Boyce Thompson Arboretum on Sunday. The highlight had to be the huge numbers of butterflies, some of which are shown here.

Ceraunus Blue - there were hundreds, if not thousands of these


Texan Crescent



Giant Swallowtail - interesting perspective


And another Giant Swallowtail:


Southern Dogface


There were also several dozen Queen's, some pipevine swallowtails, and western pygmy blue's.

Patagonia-Sonoita Preserve

A few highlights from a 3 hour visit to the Patagonia-Sonoita Preserve near Patagonia, AZ.


Vermilion Flycatcher (male)


Vermilion Flycatcher (female)


Clark's Spiny Lizard


Ash-Throated Flycatcher


Ash-Throated Flycatcher (tentative)


Female House Finch


Black Phoebe - When I first saw this, I thought it was a Black Phoebe, until it flew a little closer allowing me to see the light wing bars and pale yellow underside. The very dark grey or black color is seems to be unique among flycatchers with pale yellow undersides. Thanks to the BIRDWG05 maillist for help in confirming it as a Black Phoebe - just an abnormally yellow one.



Unidentified Bird (Flycatcher)


Unidentified Flycatcher


White Tailed Deer


Female Broad-Billed Hummingbird


Checkered White Butterfly


Other sitings (not photographed) include numerous Queen butterflies, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Gila Woodpecker, Norther Flicker (red-shafted), Blue Grosbeak, Black-headed Grosbeak, Northern Cardinal, House Finch, Common Yellowthroat, White Breasted Nuthatch, Bewick's Wren, Phainopepla, Lark Sparrow, Gambel's Quail, Barn Swallow, Canyon Towhee, Cliff Swallow, Song Sparrow, Broad-Billed Hummingbird, and Yellow Warbler.

Arizona Butterflies

In addition to being a premier location for birds, Arizona is also a great location for butterflies. Throughout the year, my backyard will see Monarchs, Queens, Gulf Fritillarys, Black Swallowtails, Western Pygmy Blues, Marine Blues, Leda Ministreak, Painted lady, Orange Sulphur, and many others.

Today I happened to notice a large number of Marine Blue's in a patch of Blue Cornflower. This is a tiny butterfly that without careful observation, looks like a generally plain white-ish butterfly. However, with the help of a macro lens, it turns out to be quite an interesting little lepid.



The Marine Blue is close to double the size of a Western Pygmy Blue, which is truly tiny - perhaps 1.5 cm across.




My other recent find was another tiny butterfly in Madera Canyon in southeastern Arizona. Here, several Arizona Hairstreaks were seen basking in the sun. The exterior of their wings are green and orange, as seen here. However, the interior is a deep blue.

Greater Roadrunner

There are few birds associated with the southwest more than the roadrunner. Specifically, the roadrunner species in the US is the Greater Roadrunner - Geococcyx Californianus. The roadrunner is a large bird - it can reach nearly 2 feet from it's head to the tip of it's long tail feathers. It's probably most noted for it's ability run quickly - nearly 25 mph. This is likely an adaptation to aid it in hunting lizards and snakes.






Roadrunners are fascinating birds - aside form their size and unique shape and ability run, they have interesting hunting techniques. They have been documented to occasionally work in pairs to hunt rattlesnakes - one distracting the snake allowing the other to move in. They commonly kill their prey by repeatedly bashing the prey's heads on the ground or rocks.

The bird photographed above was spotted in the Santa Cruz Flats region in south central Arizona. This region (named for the normally dry Santa Cruz River), is bounded by Arizona City to the north, Marana to the south, and Picacho Peak to the east. The region primarily a flatland consisting of many farm plots (sod/turf, cotton, pecan groves, and others) and empty arid lots. this combination of natural habitat and the consistent water associated with the farm crops makes for an excellent location for many bird species. In fact, in a brief 90 minute survey of the region, 3 roadrunners were spotted among about 30 total bird species. With a little more time to focus on the seclusive species, it's likely another 5-10 species of sparrow and thrasher could have been identified.

Twice-stabbed Lady Bird Beetle

While working on the yard I noticed an interesting 'lady bug' species on our Chilean Mesquite tree.




This species, called the Twice-Stabbed Lady Bird Beetle was actually fairly prevalent on the tree, though hard to photograph because it never stayed still. There are three species of 'Twice-stabbed Lady Beetles', including Chilocoris Stigma, Chilocoris Cacti, and Olla v-nigrum. Compared to the well-known Lady Beetle species, these are quite a bit smaller, and apparently often go unnoticed.

These 'Lady Bugs' like to eat scale insects and also aphids, mites, and caterpillar eggs. I'm not sure exactly what on the Chilean Mesquite they were attracted to. In any event, this is at least the third species of lady beetles I've seen in the yard, and I can't say I've ever exactly been looking for them.

Challenges of Macro

I've gotten interested in macro photos again in recent days, and have pulled out my Canon 100mm f/2.8 macro lens and put it to use. I'd forgotten how difficult macro shots are given the narrow depth of field. The ganzania picture is a good example:



If you click on it to see the full size image, you'll see the challenge. The center of the flower is very sharp, as was the goal of the shot. However, the petals are very blurry. If I'd wanted the petals to also be sharp, I'd need to stop down significantly - to the point of either not having adequate light to make the exposure, or requiring a higher ISO and thus grainy photo. Of course, I could/should use a tripod, but even then, at f/18 or higher you start to lose sharpness due to dispersion, so I'd need to add some extra light.

The iceplant flower (about 1" across in real life) below is another good example. I missed the focus just a little, and the result is the entire flower appears out of focus. Generally, the goal is to get the stamens and pistils in sharp focus since that is where the eye normally is drawn, and where the most contrast exists. But in this case I focused midway on the petal. The result: the center of the flower is out of focus, and the edge is out of focus.




The best thing to do is spend extra time with macros and use a tripod and add extra light. Reflectors help add natural light and fill shadows. I also use a macro ring flash on occasion, but it can cast an unnatural light on indoor macros (but it works great to fill shadows outside). And this is all the more important when you add extension tubes and attempt super-macro shots.

backyard

I decided to give my camera a small workout today and spent an hour or so shooting in the backyard. we've had a very warm winter so there are still many flowers blooming and a lot of insect activity, making for good subjects. A quick count of different blooming plant varieties totaled about 26, but I'd imagine I forgot a couple.

Parry's Penstemon Flower


The bud of the Parry's gets deposits of minerals, making it look like little ice crystals have collected:




Our ice plants had numerous bee species today:



Pineleaf Milkweed Buds


I really like the symmetry of the Parry's Agave. I was playing around with my macro ring flash in this photo. It had been awhile and I couldn't remember some of the tricks with it, but I got a composition I liked. I'll have to work on the execution and present an improved version in a later post.



Blanket Flower


Part of the mid/late winter routine is to cut back roses. We saved a few blooms to put in a vase. Here is a quick snapshot - they aren't in perfect shape due to a few cold mornings, but the size of these were incredible - the largest one measured 6.5 inches across.