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Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Another busy day

Watered the oasis, then came to town and picked and dried peaches. Did laundry and also washed my son's pickup and took it back to him. Finally got a few minutes to look at the photos I had snapped at the oasis while watering.

There had been a female amberwing foraging from a perch high in my lovely soapberry thicket. Just because I don't see female amberwings at the oasis very often and with nothing else interesting to shoot, and just maybe it might be a Mexican Amberwing, I took a couple of shots of it.

Well, now I do believe it actually was a Mexican Amberwing. The arroyo that the soapberry patch is in is infested with mosquitoes. I was getting devoured by them. Now I wish I had gotten a ladder and repellent and at least tried for better shots. It was foraging but came back to the same perch while I watched. Seems I never learn. Hope the two shots that I got are good enough for ID. If it is a Mexican Amberwing, it would be an earlier record for the year than before, by a little more than one week.


Yesterday I missed perfect shots at  that  Eastern Ringtail dragonfly, and today I missed doing better with the amberwing. In both instances I had great trouble focusing the camera. I can't hold it steady enough either. It takes me a long time to focus, unlike the Canon. Yesterday, I missed a perfect shot because the camera was trying to focus on the vegetation and today I gave up over the mosquitoes. And I don't even react to the bites, but they're still unendurable in swarms.

Other than soapberry, not much blooming and no great butterfly activity. The forecast is for a hot dry next ten days or more. Sure gotta get more rain this summer.

Remember last year in late October when I was plagued by the bear and it smashed down my wonderful horsetails? 


Well, earlier this spring Mac and I tied them upright as best we could and now new ones have grown up among them, holding most of them in place, so it's not looking quite as pitiful anymore.


UPDATE: The Mexican Amberwing was accepted by the experts!


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