Annular Solar Eclipse

Cyndi and I traveled to Zion National Park in Utah to enjoy the solar eclipse of 20 May 2012.  We checked out the area the day before the eclipse and settled on the Hop Canyon Trailhead on Kolob Plateau.

The sandstone features were amazing all by themselves, so we figured we'd enjoy the scenery as well as the astronomical event.

Here's a detail view, looking over toward Kolob Canyon (which we had visited the previous day ... but that's another story altogether).

The moon slowly passed in front of the sun and over the course of an hour covered more and more of the bright star.  Cyndi's brother Derek had presented us with eclipse viewing filters when we visited him on the way down.  Good thing, too, because my imagination told me the sun would be way down on the horizon at sunset so would be seen by the camera lens.  To be sure, the camera would not have seen the eclipse at all without this filter in front of the lens.  Thank you Derek!

As the light took on sunset hues, even though the sun was still rather high in the sky, I noticed I was being observed.  This Long-tailed Weasel had passed nearby with something in her mouth, and was now hiding in some oak leaves intently watching me.

As the moon obscured more of the sun the camera began to give sharper images of the crescent sun.

The mystery was solved as this mother weasel and her baby ran across the open rocks and disappeared into the sagebrush uphill of my vantage point.  During the eclipse she passed by me repeatedly, once shuttling two young, but otherwise just escorting one to the relative safety of the scrub and brush on the hillside behind me.  I counted 5 young ones during these trips.  What a great sideshow!

This is what it looked like at the moment the moon appeared to me to be most centered on the sun.  The moon was only completely in front of the sun for just a bit more than 6 minutes.

Then the moon began to pass away from the sun and the magical light faded away as it became progressively brighter for the next hour until we were back to our usual experience.

I had been unable to see the new moon the day before the eclipse, or on the day, or even the day after ... but two days later, at sunset, there she was once again ... the smallest sliver near Venus.

Though this kind of photography highlights well any "dead pixels" on my digital camera CCD sensor, in this instance the tiny speck to the right of the limb of the moon really is a faint star.

Show's over folks, nothing more to see here.  Get back to work, and there's studying to be done.  Don't even think about bird photos!

Getting There is Half the Fun

Cyndi and I recently took a trip to southeastern Arizona, to see a new place and to experience the many birds that can only be found there within the United States. Some birds live in Central America and Mexico and the very northern edge of their range brings a very few of them to Arizona and Texas. For instance there is only one species of hummingbird east of the Mississippi River (the Ruby-throated), but in southeastern Arizona as many as 14 have been seen over the years.

We drove. It was a long drive. By the time we returned home we had gone over 2,500 miles. All along the way we enjoyed looking at how the geology and plant life changed (as well as the birds, of course).

We first headed for Utah, and before we crossed the Idaho border we stopped where the Juniper trees grow and saw birds both familiar and new.

The Brewer's Blackbird can be found throughout Idaho, but this one posed beautifully in the sun.

The Juniper Titmouse has a limited range in Idaho. I saw them once before in California, but this was the first time I found one in Idaho!

We spent a night at the home of Cyndi's brother, then continued south, passing through some amazing Utah scenery on the way.

After dark we arrived at the Grand Canyon's south rim, where we camped for the night. In the morning we awoke to the view that so many travel so far to marvel at. This was my first time to see it.

Flitting around the treetops, below us in the Grand Canyon was this Black-throated Gray Warbler.

Though we greatly enjoyed seeing the canyon and the birds in the National Park, we continued on to our destination, Madera Canyon and the Santa Rita Lodge, which is known for the hummingbirds and wildlife and hiking trails to be found nearby.