September 5-8, 2013 Arizona Trip – Part II – More Critters

More Arizona Critters

On our Arizona adventure, in addition to the bat photography at night, we spent a good part of the day either at the blind by Bill’s pond, up in the mountains photographing birds or wandering around to get some macro shots.

My favorite bird at Bill’s pond was the Gambel’s Quail. The male is so beautiful, but also soooo aggressive. He would chase off all of the other birds.

We saw several other species. The butterfly was sipping a bit of OJ at the blind. I managed to get a shot that had to be cropped quite a bit, but still good enough for an ID as a Dull Firetip, Apyrrothrix araxes. The reason I was able to crop so much and still have a fairly decent image is that I was using Kathy’s brand new 500mm lens. Oh, what a fantastic lens!

I was really lucky to get this Townsend’s Warbler in the parking lot at the lodges up in the mountain …

I also got my first photo of an Acorn Woodpecker from a photo blind across from the lodges. The White-breasted Nuthatches and Chipping Sparrows were flitting in and out constantly.

One of the highlights of the trip was the photoshoot with a horned lizard. I initially thought it was a Texas Horned Lizard since it looked so similar to ones I played with as a kid. But, in studying the horned lizards found in the Sonoran Desert area of Arizona, I suspected that it was actually a Regal Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma solare, even though the Texas Horned Lizard is also found in the area. I checked with a herpetologist and found that it was the Regal.