Passing the Baton

I (and likely Amzapp) am about through with my photo observations. Time to pass the baton to you guys out there; your turn; wander around Twistflower, observe, take pictures, post them as observations on iNaturalist.

I used 4 cameras including my cell phone on Twistflower, and during a 2-day stay took 4690 photos. Most were taken with the Nikon D3100 with 70-300mm lens and 2X converter and with the Coolpix P510. (If the pic has a date-stamp and GPS data embedded, it was the P510.) A few group people pictures were taken with the Olympus Stylus, and about 150 more photos on the cell phone, mostly scenics and people-pics but some genuine observations.

What was NOT on photos? We saw deer. Doe & fawn, a couple more deer the next day. A probable fox outside our cabins [looked white in the pre-dawn dark; an albino fox? Was the apparent color due to the sodium light?]. There were many bird that got away unphotographed. They tantalized us with their calls. From the truck Amzapp ID'd a Savannah Sparrow that I did not see. There was a lizard that moved like a streak of light. Road kill on the paved road running through Twistflower [thought I saw a dead coyote pup on the way in].

Within an hour after arriving I explored the cliff edges of the mesa where the buildings are, and while sitting quietly on the limestone overlook amid lechuguilla, cactus, moss and fern, heard a repeated gutteral gronking a little like the honking of a goose coming from below on the cliff face. Some kind of bird surely, but I never found out what it was. The ornithologist who arrived later suggested a roadrunner, but I don't think so. Could it have been a frog at a spring down on the cliff? Most lokely a bird.

The cry of Zone-tailed Hawks was common along that cliff.

In twilight mist and rain I joined ornithologist Dr. Ben Skipper and field biologist Drew Harvey trying to locate the aerie of the Zone-tailed Hawks. Saw the general location and a Zone-tail wheeling about but it was all I could do to keep up with the much younger men.

Some of our (my!) IDs will change. I do not think it was a flight of whistling ducks that passed overhead (what, then? Herons? Cannot remember what Dr. Skipper said). A number of my plant IDs are flat-out guesses.

These observations DO NOT reflect relative numbers of species. I and others tend to make fewer observations of the commonplace and boring and may overlook the most common species all together. HOWEVER, because of my interest in cactus, I tried to photograph every non-opuntia non-cholla I came across. So the ratios of Scarlett Hedgehog, Strawberry Hedgehog, Little Nipple, Turk's Head, Horse Crippler, and so on In my observations may somewhat reflect the relative numbers of these species on the Twistflower.

הועלה ב-ספטמבר 19, 2018 02:45 אחה"צ על ידי thebark