Weekend Trip To Whitewater Draw

As noted in our last post, we made our second, and likely last trip this season to visit with the Sandhill Cranes at Whitewater Draw. They usually depart mid-February, so they'll be headed north very soon. We made a slight detour on the way down and visited Dave, who lives near Sierra Vista. He was on our first trip what, 3 years ago, and indicated that a lens of his, a 400mm F/4 might be available to borrow. Well, we finally got a chance to make good on that deal. He wasn't up to join us on the trip, but the lens did!

We've been chasing birds for a couple years now, both here in Arizona and up in Illinois, but my "premium" lens has always been either a Nikon 500mm F/8, or a Meade 480mm F/6 - a small telescope, really. The problems with both is that they are manual focus, and birds rarely want to wait around while you spend time focusing on the glint of sunlight off their eyeball! So it is a joy to use one of these "super-telephoto" lenses that not only have auto focus (in a small fraction of a second) and image stabilization to boot! All pictures from our last post, as well as this one, (except the sunset pic in Sunday's post) were taken with the 400 F/4 either alone or with a 1.4 converter. He is also allowing me to keep it for a week or two for some astronomical imaging, but we're in the middle of the rainiest weather we've had in years! We'll see if I get to try it at night...

Like we said in our last brief post, it was a little blustery upon our arrival at Whitewater, and while there were a lot of cranes and Snow Geese, they were mostly hunkered down from the wind, without any opportunities for "close encounters" with the big lens. I took a few shots from the viewing stands, but nothing spectacular. A little closer to sunset, from a different perspective, I was able to get some birders and cranes with the bright glint from the Large Binocular Telescope atop Mount Graham, 85 miles to the north.

I did have some success though with some of the smaller birds in the lagoons there. Even with the windy conditions, they gotta eat, so I followed a little Black Phoebe and managed some nice closeups with the 400+1.4. Their behavior is very much like the Vermillion Flycatchers mentioned a few posts ago. They fly off to catch a bug, but almost always return to the same roost between flights.

While waiting for the wind to die down, we did have some Northern Shovelers drift past, but they seemed more concerned feeding underwater than pay any attention to the birders. Mostly got lots of pictures of their butts in the air. Note the wind-induced waves - surfs up!


We always spot some new birds with every trip there. At least 3 this time including a pair of Common Snipe (pics only from a distance) and a female Northern Harrier. The Harrier was quite spectacular in it's behavior. It came gliding in very slowly, almost hovering over some of the marshy islands looking for mice and prey. She made multiple passes over 15 or 20 minutes, though none very close. She was amazing to watch and you can see why they named a jet aircraft that hovers a harrier!






Another new one for us at Whitewater were a couple of Pied-Billed Grebes. The first approached us closely, though was almost directly up-sun, daring us to take photos of it. The second was nearer to sunset and was much more cautious. It was getting dark enough that I even used the on-camera flash to pull out a little more detail,and the reflection can be seen in it's eyeball. This one shows the more characteristic black stripe on it's bill displayed during breeding season.


The last picture to show off is of the crowd of Yellow-Headed Blackbirds. As I posted from our last trip, they appeared minutes before sunset, though seemingly sensing the big lens I was carrying, they kept their distance. But even from a distance, the flock collecting on the bare trees seemingly transformed them into flowering shrubs.

The visit was a classic - even with the wind and lack of close-up opportunities, it was a beautiful late afternoon and sunset, and a great time just to sit and watch nature happen. As the sun set, the cranes gathered in the growing darkness. I took a few shots - my favorite shot of them was in our last post. But as the stars came out, it was hard to leave, but the 2 hour return drive demanded it...

Busy, Busy, but More Soon!

You would think that a rainy Sunday in Tucson (something like a half inch so far - a lot for us!) that it would be a perfect time to relax and blog about our activities. We've been busier than heck lately, with some progress on home-improvement projects, and the last trip of the season to Whitewater Draw yesterday. But company is coming in a few days, there is no time to rest! So just a few tidbits to whet your appetite for now.


With the rain that is upon us now originally forecast for late yesterday, we were a little concerned about the trip to see the cranes at Whitewater, but it was a beautiful day, though blustery winds kept bird activity low till near sunset. And what a sunset it was - typical Arizona, if there is such a thing! Here are a few distant coots and shovelers reflected in the last red clouds to the west. The cranes, which had been distant all day, gathered about this same time and made a noisy spectacle, if not visual one. There was a small bunch that was close enough to get a cat's-eye reflection from their eyes from the on-camera flash(click the pictures to enlarge), their shapes silhouetted in the western glow. And this Great Horned Owl always makes his appearance after sunset as well, and again, the flash was utilized to pull him out of the dark a bit. It was a great evening, even without a gazillion bird photos, but we're saving some goodies for a more extended post when time permits.


And our other activity that is "keeping us off the streets" is a continuation of our bathroom remodel. Will do the real unveil in a day or two, but here is a hint of some of our Talavera tile work. So be patient that we're not posting often at the moment - it isn't like we're sitting on our hands!

Work Stuff - LSST Generating

One of the big projects at the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab that is taking up most of my effort currently is the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. This will be quite an amazing telescope - a huge (almost 28-foot-diameter or 8.4 meters) telescope with a wide field of view (7 full Moon diameters) that will image the entire sky in just a few days looking for asteroids, comets, variable stars and galaxies - most anything that goes bump in the night!

While I've blogged about the project before (hit the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab keyword down on the right side), not since we started our current task - diamond generating of the front surface of the mirror. It is sort of cool to perform a precision machining operation of such a large surface using diamond tools. And of course, it starts with the generating machine itself. The Large Optical Generator (LOG) was originally installed a couple blocks from here at the Optical Sciences Center's optics shop, where I started my career in optical fabrication in 1983. Two decades ago it was refurbished and moved to it's present location under the University of Arizona's football stadium east stands where the Mirror Lab resides. Mostly the LOG consists of a rotary table with 2-meter crossed roller bearings, and the main bridge, with horizontal and vertical carriage motions with a couple micron (thousandths of a millimeter) accuracy. The LSST mirror and it's cell weight something in excess of 40 tons, no problem for this machine.


This is a view looking down the ventilation system. The glass of the concave surface of LSST is at bottom. A large amount of coolant is used to keep the diamonds cool during the machining operation, some of which is turned into a mist by the rapid motion of the diamonds. Glass particles are carried away in the coolant and mist and because of the danger in ingesting the mist into our lungs, it is carried away by a ventilation system to our roof where it is filtered. The plastic flaps maintain a good seal to the glass and the silver tube in back is where the mist travels to the roof. The diamond wheel at center is turned by a 15 horsepower motor and there are 2 coolant lines visible, as well as an additional one with coolant running through the wheel itself. The gold-colored pellets are made of a soft metal with embedded diamonds which does the glass removal. The white football-shaped roller at right is a "safety roller" which rolls on the glass and monitors the glass position during the process.


The diamond pellets currently in use have 40 mesh diamonds - in other words, the diamonds are about 1/40th of an inch across, which are used for coarse generating. It results in a pretty rough surface, but we've got a few tons of glass to remove! With our standard generating process, we remove about 7 cubic inches of glass per minute, or about 2 cubic centimeters per second. You can see why we dump 15 gallons of coolant/minute on the diamond-glass interface. The coolant, by the way, is recycled and run through a centrifugal filter to remove the ground glass. In the closeup picture of the diamond pellet the diamonds are seen peeking from the metal matrix. As the pellets machine away the glass, the metal also wears exposing new diamonds, and releasing the dull ones as they wear. The few concave spots are where former diamonds were held, but were released as they dulled.


From the operator's platform Leslie keeps an eye on the operation. The ventilation system is visible at left. The actual generator action is enclosed by the mist containment, but a close watch is kept on the computer readouts and the mirror surface itself for problems. The yellow structure is a safety rail while we are working on the mirror surface. The steeply curved surface of LSST can be seen - the surface we are making has a 19 meter radius, or 8.5 meter focal length.

At right, grooves can be seen in the surface - the machining geometry we use produces a shallow groove, and as the mirror rotates, the diamond wheel spirals in and down towards the center, analogous to the grooves on a record. the black stripe was put on before the generating pass was started, and is removed as .030" is machined off this pass.

We've got quite a bit more to remove, so will be doing this for a while!

Melinda's bird pics

Dean promised, in his previous post, that I would post my pictures from our recent bird excursions...so here we go!

First up are my pictures from our Whitewater Draw trip, a few weeks ago. Even though we have now been there several times, there is something magical about seeing thousands of Sandhill Cranes together. These really are my 'best shots', as they are pretty difficult to photograph - especially in the air!

You really have to click on these photos to enlarge them, in order to see the detail on the birds.


Of course, there are other birds at Whitewater Draw. We see numerous Shovler's, Buffleheads, there were some Snow Geese hiding amongst the Cranes, and occasionally you see something that is totally a 'new' find on "your personal birding list". This was the case for me, this trip! While I have seen plenty of Cattle Egrets, I have never seen a Great Egret...until this fellow showed up! It can be tricky, picking out the specific characteristics that define each species. You can clearly see in this photo that this guy has the characterisic yellow beak, and black legs. He seems to enjoy watching the little Buffleheads bob around in the water as much as the human observers do. Seeing, and photographing, this majestic bird was a highlight for me on this trip!


Our next excursion, as you know, was locally to Sweetwater Wetlands. Since Sweetwater is only a few miles from our house we are really enjoying going there! Whitewater Draw is a good 1.5 hour drive; so if we can get find some good birds closer to home we're glad to go see them on a regular basis! Dean posted his pictures from the trip - including the bobcat we saw! Wow!! I was wishing we had brought a can of Fancy Feast to lure her closer. What a beautiful animal! I managed to get some decent bird pictures at Sweetwater.

First up is the Ruddy Duck, displaying breeding coloration, and his mate. If you didn't know that this was possible you may have thought someone painted this guy's bill with bright blue paint! How incredibly bizarre!












This little cutie is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I've been hoping to see one since seeing it in my National Audubon Society Field Guide. They are the smallest of birds, with the exception of hummingbirds, so not easy to find! This little one was quite friendly, and I think it would have landed on our heads if we had stayed quiet and still enough. As it was, it would land on branches within 2-3 feet of us! This picture is just about life size, without enlarging it to see detail....cute!!





You may need to click on this picture to enlarge it and see the sweet little Common Yellowthroat Warbler in this picture. It was hiding among the reeds and the grass, but belting out a song! Since this was the only one I saw all day, it's nice to give it some recognition. Like many warbler's, the Common Yellow Throat is quite small - much smaller than their voice. They seem to be the Ethel Merman's of the bird world!










Another warbler here. If you guessed this one's name to be "Yellow Warbler" you'd be right! There were lots of these flitting around, this one held still long enough for me to get a picture.











This guy has been getting a lot of local attention, among the birder's in the area. Leucistic Vermillion Flycatcher's are pretty rare, and often mistaken to be albino's, which they are not. An albino would have 'pink' eyes (absent of color, so appearing pink). This little guy has black eyes! While this is not the best picture taken of one of these, it's my picture - and I was really pleased to have gotten to see it and photograph it!





This last picture is of Dean with our friends, Jenny and Frank. Jenny and I work together and we had a great time introducing them to Sweetwater! Fieldtrips, like this, are always fun to share with friends!

More Sweetwater

We made plans today to meet one of Melinda's co-workers at Sweetwater Wetlands if it wasn't raining this afternoon. While rain was in the area, we managed to stay dry for today's visit.

First up is actually a shot from Sunday of a Cinnamon Teal. He is spectacularly beautiful, especially in the reddish light of the lowering sun. His red eye is visually shocking, even in his reflection from the water.

Except for this picture, taken with the Meade 80mm F/6 APO lens, all of today's shots were taken with a Nikon 500mm F/8 mirror lens with an adaptor for the Canon camera.

While there were almost no human birders there today, we were not alone looking for action. In our amblings around the lagoons of the Wetlands, we spotted this female bobcat on several occasions as she rambled the same lagoons, looking for a careless bird near a shore. She certainly wasn't put off by us - she walked away rather than ran, and just the fact that we saw her several times indicated she tolerated humans pretty well. The left picture also demonstrates how well she blends in with the desert colors and patterns. She might have been difficult to spot if we hadn't seen her earlier where she didn't blend in as well.

The other good "get" for me today was of a male Ruddy Duck. We were on one of the several overlooks built over the water, and this fellow was ignoring us as he was "presenting" to several females . Evidently the males' bills turn blue in mating season. These two pictures are consecutive frames taken with the Canon, so are less than a half second apart. The male presses his bill against his breast, making a ticking sound, which simultaneously makes him bob in the water, and somehow produces a rush of bubbles as well. And the rightmost picture he appears to be smiling, looking very pleased with himself. If you hadn't witnessed the bobbing action, he almost appears as if he farted, producing the foam of bubbles evident. One of the two females following him around is shown here too.

Melinda has plans to catch up and post more pictures very soon. With her work week behind her, it is time for her to catch up!

Sweetwater Wetlands

While we are definitely not serious birders, I've developed an interest the last couple years since astronomy isn't easy in the Chicago area. Living near the Fox River and all the local forest preserves there make a new kind of observing a challenge. And thanks to some friends that introduced us to Whitewater Draw a few years back, we enjoy watching the annual return of Sandhill Cranes and other favorites there.

Today a group of friends introduced us to the Sweetwater Wetlands. Interestingly, it is less than 5 miles from our house, and consists of 17 acres of constructed wetlands, built about 15 years ago that is part of the City of Tucson's waste water treatment system. With the wealth of plant life, there is also an incredible variety of birds. It is amazing how a semi-permanent body of water in the desert will attract wildlife. Since it consists of treated effluent, sometimes the odor is less attractive than the name implies, but the birds don't seem to mind!

Melinda and I met our photo expedition at 8am this morning - a chilly clear day with snow visible in the nearby mountains from our winter storm late in the week. Never having been there, we weren't sure what to expect, but we had heard of a wide variety of birds there, and have seen some of the photos in the reader galleries in the morning paper. One of our guides, Steve, a former Midwest resident and hunter, gave a detailed description of many of the wetland birds we were seeing - many of them new to me. The first one he pointed out to me was the Pied-billed Grebe that he spotted halfway across one of the lagoons. It didn't come very close, but it was so cute...

Another that he IDed for me was the American Wigeon, which I had never heard of, let alone seen. It seemed pretty common here at the wetlands, and was strikingly beautiful through optical aid. The first photo shows a male and female together, and the second taken a little later that shows the brilliant iridescent green patch behind his eye.


The last of the water fowl I'll post about now is a Common Moorhen. Steve thought it was unusual to see them in Arizona, though my Internet reading indicates it is one of the most common of the rails, behind the Coots in some areas, which were quite numerous at Sweetwater and Whitewater. This one was very shy and only revealed himself and his bright beak rarely. But he was easy to follow through the undergrowth with the bright flash of red.


Melinda and I left the photo crew about 11am, and headed back into town to catch the Spanish movie "Broken Embraces" - we highly recommend it! Melinda works tonight at UMC, so after the movie we returned home to get her a nap. With 90 minutes or 2 hours to kill, I went back over to Sweetwater to see what was out later in the afternoon when a little (very little!) warmer.

There was a steady stream of birders, and interestingly, I didn't see any flycatchers in the morning, but they were quite numerous in the afternoon. Steve had warned me in the morning to be on the lookout for an albino Vermillion Flycatcher, and sure enough, pretty much the first bird I saw, attracting a steady small crowd, was the very one! The Vermillion is my absolute favorite Arizona bird, and the albino version had the characteristic shape of course, even without the colors. There was the slightest bit of pink under his butt, otherwise the feathers were absolutely white.


One of the things I like about photographing the Vermillion Flycatchers in particular and the flycatchers in general is that while they don't tend to perch for very long, they take off on their little bug-catching orbit and more often than not, return to the same branch. So you can focus precisely on the branch (which takes time with my manual focus telescope) and the bird will likely return to the same branch for the photo. Besides the albino Vermillion (which seemed to have a normally drab female mate) there was a busy swarm of flycatchers, mostly Black Phoebes and a couple varieties of warblers I've not identified yet. And just as I was leaving the little encampment of flycatchers, I ran across a "normal" Vermillion Flycatcher, and after walking after him, he approached and almost dared me to get a closeup, so I obliged. You can see why they are one of my very favorites!

I think we'll have more to post - Melinda's pics are still in her camera, so look for more later. But with the walking trails and wide variety of birds, we'll be coming back here frequently! Oh, and by the way, all the above were taken with a Canon XSi, and except for the first wide shot of a lagoon, all were taken with a Meade 80mm F/6 triplet APO (480mm focal length).

Additional Note: I forgot to mention that we got another sign how small the word really is! As we were leaving Sweetwater in the morning to go to our movie, We happened to see a couple birders walking away from us, the fellow wearing what appeared to be a "St Charles" in big orange letters on the back of his black jacket. I asked after him "that wouldn't be St Charles, Illinois would it?" whose school colors are orange and black. They turned, and sure enough, it was John and Joy Duerr, who were not only long-term St Charles residents, but he has a forest preserve named for him, right across the Fox River from Tekakwitha Forest Preserve, only a mile from our house there! I guess if you spend a career administering the forest preserve system in Kane County, you get a forest preserve named for you. They are visiting Tucson for a month, and they are SERIOUS birders - they hired a professional birding guide (who knew you could do that in Tucson?!), and had already hit a dozen or more of the local hotspots, and were on their 5th or 6th trip to Sweetwater (don't forget it was our first, and we live here!). Small world, eh!

West of the Pecos...

I've been trying to hone my photography skills, learning from Dean as much as I can. Here are a few pictures from our trip - as a wrap up from our travels in Texas....