Posts in Category: Desert Museum
Nest Building Verdin
Verdin. Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
Though I am in Panama for a short night’s sleep before a 5am pick-up for our flight to Bocas Del Toro and Tranquilo Bay Lodge, I will take a moment to post this shot from the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson. There are, of course, a lot of wild Desert birds who call the grounds of the ASDM home. This Verdin, building a nest, is one of them.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Bobcat: Arizona Sonoran Desert MuseumÂ
Bobcats, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
We spent an interesting morning at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum on Thursday. The ASDM is one of my favorite places and certainly on of the few “zoos” I really like. The displays are excellent, with natural looking habitats, and of course it goes well beyond, as the name suggests, your ordinary Zoo. It covers the full Sonoran Desert experience… from plants and animals to geology.
So, while I do not generally like Zoo shots, I can not resist sharing this shot of a couple of Bobcats from the Cat Canyon display at the ASDM. It was taken through a window of thin vertical wires that forms one wall of the habitat…so thin that if you are close to the wires and the cats are a good distance behind them, they simply disappear in a photograph. It was a pleasure to catch these two bobcats interacting in the cool of the morning before they settled down for the day.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. Programed Auto with – 1/3rd EV exposure compensation. Spot focus and exposure. Processed in PhotoShop Express on my Android tablet.
Ground Squirrel In Your Face!
Ground Squirrel, Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
Full disclosure here! There is a relatively new display at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum near Tucson called “On the Rocks”. It features an odd assortment of animals, most of which live below-ground: bugs, reptiles, ground squirrels…and for some odd reason, the Roadrunner and the Elf Owl. The Ground Squirrels learned early on that the glass is there to protect them from the humans and that it works. They seem to enjoy running right along it and pressing their noses up to it for a better view of the audience. With a wide angle lens and macro focus, you can get some great shots…of the humorous variety. Like this one 🙂
Sony HX90V at 24mm equivalent field of view. 1/640th @ ISO 80 @ f3.5. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
White-winged Dove
White-winged Dove. Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
I realize this morning that I have been misspelling the Sonora in Arizona Sonora Desert Museum for two weeks now. Time to correct it. This is a White-winged Dove, the common dove of the southwest, on, I believe, an organ pipe cactus on the grounds of the museum. Easy to overlook, but beautiful in close view.
Nikon P900 at 1600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 180 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom.
Chuckwalla! NOT. Mexican Spiny-tailed Iguana.
Chuckwalla Lizard, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
I thought this was a Chuckwalla,  another local lizard that makes itself at home on the grounds of the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. There is an enclosure, just before you enter the museum gates, where Chuckwallas and other Sonoran lizards are supposed to be on display, but, honestly, they are hard to miss on any visit to the museum if you just keep your eyes open wherever you find large rocks (real rocks or the fake rocks the museum use to build displays…the Chuckwallas do not seem to care). This large male was displaying on a rock near the Mountain Canyon displays, which is where I have encountered the Chuckwalla most often at the ASDM. The panel shows the same specimen: full body (though the tail is curled around behind and below) and close up.
Note: This is actually a cross between a Mexican Spiny-tailed Iguana and a San Esteban Island Spiny-tailed Iguana…unique to the grounds of the Desert Museum…introduce there in the 70s and still breeding.
Sony HX90V at 285mm and 720mm equivalent fields of view. 1/250th @ ISO 320 and 400, @ f6.3 and f6.4. Processed in Lightroom. Assembled in Phototastic Collage.
Coyote in the morning sun…
Coyote. Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
I do not generally like zoo shots, but as I have mentioned before, the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum is somewhat exempt from my dislike. The exhibits at the ASDM are very well done…about as natural looking as you can get, and provide the animals with at least of slice of their natural habitat. This Coyote was laying on a rock in the early morning sun in its large enclosure, apparently content. When you visit the ASDM in August, you go early, as soon as the museum opens at 7:30, when the animals are more active, and the heat is more bearable. Coyotes are semi-nocturnal animals, and this one was apparently resting and warming before finding some shade for the day.
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 250 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Ground Squirrel at Prayer :)
Ground Squirrel, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum , Tucson AZ
There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of Ground Squirrels on the grounds of the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum near Tucson. There might be that many in any equal sized area of Sonoran desert, but I suspect the population is inflated by easy access to the food put out for the other critters actually on display at the museum. If you have not been there, the AZ Sonoran Desert Museum is a cross between a botanical garden and a modern, natural habitat, zoo…with at least one important geological display. It is one of the best displays of the natural history of an area that I have ever seen. And, as I said, the Ground Squirrels seem to enjoy it too. 🙂
I really like the bokeh in this shot, and the pose. All in all it lends the Ground Squirrel a very “spiritual” aspect. Maybe the Ground Squirrels at the ASDM think of it as a monastery…but one that invites whole families. 🙂 Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Eastern Collared Lizard
Eastern Collared Lizard, Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, Tucson AZ
Who says lizards can’t be beautiful? Did someone say that? I hope not! The Eastern Collard Lizard has all kinds of beauty going on. Not to mention attitude. This is one bea-ute-a-ful lizard…and don’t he know it! 🙂 This specimen was at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum near Tucson Arizona yesterday on a hot day…but he was still sunning. Getting his beauty rays.
Sony HX90V at around 1000mm equivalent field of view (using a little Clear Image Zoom beyond the optical). 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Curved-billed Thrasher
Thrashers are close relatives of the Mockingbird and the Curved-billed Thrasher is the most common of the family in the Sonoran Desert of Southern Arizona. This specimen was flying free on the grounds of the Desert Museum in Tucson. It was singing and calling loudly from it’s ocatillo perch, so it was hard to miss 🙂
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. ISO 100 @ 1 /250th @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Squirrel City
My first shots from the Desert Museum yesterday were of this family (presumably) of young Ground Squirrels. There were, as it turned out, Ground Squirrels everywhere on the grounds of the museum, but this was the only group we saw. Too cute.
Sony HX400V. Program with – 1/3 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Whole I was concerned I was keeping the HX400V, the trip to the Desert Museum really showed what it is capable of. I like it! 🙂