two whiptail lizards.
The International Dark Sky Association...
is being petitioned by the Town of Castle Valley to be designated an International Dark Sky Community, in recognition of local efforts to preserve the night sky through responsible lighting policies. Faster, please!
Milky Way Galaxy spanning the community of Castle Valley. This image was shot around 2 am under a new moon, when it is completely dark. It’s easy to see that there’s one light polluter who doesn’t have appropriately shielded outdoor fixtures at the lower right. Hmm. I’ll have to chat with the homeowner.
Dusted with pollen...
as this busy bee does its dance inside a prickly pear cactus blossom.
The wonderful outdoor studio...
that has allowed me to get some terrific lizard shots the last couple of days is generously provided by R & C who live near the very upper end of Castle Valley. They enjoy the lizards so much that they’ve created a rock garden for them to bask. Thank you very much!
Wide view of my setup, several meters from the rock garden.
The key to good wildlife photography is to be at eye level with the subject, no matter how great or small.
This sagebrush lizard kept me company while patiently waiting for the collared lizard to make its appearance. We were stood up.
Northern whiptail lizard...
out for a late afternoon crawl.
Northern whiptail lizard (Cnemidophorus tigris septentrionalis).
Note to fledgling wildlife photographers: Best shots are at eye level with the subject, so yes, I was down on my belly on the ground when shooting these lizard images and others. I do not follow this guidance when photographing rattlesnakes, though.
Brewing afternoon storm...
rolling off the La Sal Mountains today.
The lizard with charisma...
is quite vain, allowing one to get within a couple of meters to snap a photo. I love these reptiles!
The so-called common collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris), but there is nothing common about this spectacularly colorful adult male.
Stake out for the colorful...
collared lizard at a neighbor’s property yielded this diminutive sagebrush lizard instead, lazily basking in the late afternoon sun.
Northern sagebrush lizard (Sceloporus graciosus graciosus).
The core of the Milky Way...
seen in stunning detail behind the Secret Spire. I’ve reprocessed one of the images that I shot last week in order to enhance the nebulosity and dust lanes in the galactic center and to bring out the color in some of the larger stars.
Happy Mount Saint Helens day...
today, the 41st anniversary of the volcanic eruption in the Pacific Northwest. At the time I was in graduate school at Colorado State University and pleased that I wasn’t living in eastern Washington.
The La Sal Mountain range...
as seen from (well named) Windy Mesa during a muted sunset last evening. One can spy Fisher Towers, down in the Colorado River canyon, in the left-center of the image.
Be very careful...
where you step when out on the open range, especially if you’re wearing sandals!
Juvenile prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) that is only about 25 cm (10 inches) in length. Tiny!
Peak yucca...
is breaking out in the Castle Valley area right now. One has to admire a plant that can grow a meter-tall reproductive stalk each and every spring.
Narrowleaf yucca (Yucca angustissima) with Adobe Mesa looming above.
The former Mayberry peach orchard...
on the Colorado River was worked by Paul Mayberry using this classic 1962 tractor into the late 1990s, and it makes a terrific foreground subject for another Milky Way composition. The former orchard is now the eponymously named Mayberry Native Plant Propagation Center, its purpose is the testing and propagation of Colorado Plateau native plant seeds.
Squawking jays...
are really raising a racket today in the cottonwood trees.
Western Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica).
2,500 miles on the RadRover 5...
and it’s still as much fun to ride now as the day I received it last September. It’s the best thing to happen since my training wheels came off as a kid.
But! In the last two months I have had to: 1) replace a non-functioning battery charger, 2) replace the shifter lever (broken), 3) replace the left brake lever assembly (bell broken), 4) replace the rear tire (normal wear) and 5) replace brake pads (normal wear). Issues 1-3 were covered by the one year warranty at no charge to me, other than the frustration of having to deal with Rad Power Bikes’ poor customer service. The upside is that I’ve become a RPB master mechanic in the process.
The Navajo Sandsone...
is interpreted to be the result of wind deposition of large sand dunes during Triassic-Jurassic time (~ 200 Ma), and it provides some of the best “slickrock” surfaces in the Moab area for mountain biking.
Textbook trough cross-stratification indicative of an eolian (wind driven) depositional environment.
The Secret Spire, a hoodoo set on a rolling landscape of eroding Navajo Sandstone.
Spring Canyon Point...
provided a spectacular perch above the crumbling neck of Bowknot Bend on the deeply incised Labyrinth Canyon section of the Green River for sunset last night. I shot this before making my way back to Secret Spire for astrophotography later in the evening.
Secret Spire, a truly unique hoodoo, eroding from the Navajo Sandstone. The fragile formation is only about two meters in diameter at its base and about eight meters in total height.
Magnificent starscape...
last night at this Secret Spire.
Ripping and pulling conduit...
for fiber optic cable across my property as the Castle Valley community is finally on the cusp of entering the 21st century!
This single strand of glass will deliver telecommunications and Internet services when the “Valley lights up” in a few more weeks. I can’t wait to close my account with terrible/horrible Frontier Communications in favor of Emery Telcom!