Gray Fox vs. Rattlesnake

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson 1 Comment

Did another trail camera photo dump from the @desertphotoretreat Always fun to see what animals share the water hole. I knew a rattle snake was hanging around since I found a shedded skin a couple of week earlier. However, a snake has never shown up in the camera – probably because they are cold blooded. The reason this one showed was thanks to the gray fox.

You can see they interacted for a few minutes. At one point the snake curled up and raised its head while facing the fox. Ultimately it appears they were both just after a drink and in the last photo you can see the fox had no interest in the snake.

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Gambel’s Quail Family

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Gambel’s quail, Tortolita Mountains, Marana, near Tucson, Arizona.

This gambel’s quail family with at least 12 brand new little babies just showed up to the water drip at the Desert Photo Retreat! Granted, it is mid day light, and photographed through the dirty, tinted window of our RV. But, too cute not to share!

Camera Trapping Gray Fox

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson 1 Comment

Gray Fox, Tortolita Mountains, Marana, near Tucson, Arizona.

I had a trail camera set up in this little wash the last couple of weeks and noticed that the animals would sometimes use it to access our water hole. So last night I grabbed a bunch of flashes and set up knowing this would be the last night of this moon cycle to still capture stars in the sky. Got lucky and captured most of the fox! Normally if there is any abient light such as the moon in this case, the subject will be ghosted. Here the fox must have been holding perfectly still since it is sharp, maybe it sees a mouse.

Techs for the curious: Olympus OM-1, silent shutter, f/4, ISO 4,000 20 seconds. Usually I would go with a larger f-stop and shorter shutter speed, but the exact location of the subject wasn’t obvious, so I wanted a tad more depth of field. Two Godox flashes up close camera left and right at 128 power, another one on a stand camera right at 1/32 power which must not have fired since the right hand saguaros are dark, and a Nikon flash off in the distance camera left a 1/32 power. Camtraption triggers and sensors.

Striped Skunk

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson 2 Comments

Striped skunk, Tortolita Mountains, Marana, near Tucson, Arizona.

From last night. One of the advantages of a moonless night is the ability to capture the animal with stars. This is funny, I was working on the settings on the back of my camera when a striped skunk suddenly appeared on the LCD screen on the back of my camera. I thought, how could that be, it would have to be a couple of feet away…wait. Sure enough, I peaked over the top of the camera and watched a skunk walk right past me, past the water hole and off into the desert. It was like I didn’t exist which was pretty cool.

Gray Fox Pair

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Gray Fox, Tortolita Mountains, Marana, near Tucson, Arizona.

The gray fox pair coming into the water hole last night – I cropped the water hole out of the images, it is just to the right. I think this is the first time over the years that I actually captured both fox in the same frame. Pretty animals.

Mountain Lion

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Mountain lion near Tucson, Arizona.

A screen shot from my wifi camera from last night! The good news, I had my real camera trap set up last night. The bad news, it was not at this little water hole. I stepped outside and walked by this 15 minutes after he drank, and had no idea he had just been there! He has come to this water hole only 13 feet from our RV in the past, but always in the middle of the night when the lights are off and we were sleeping. This is the first time he has visited where he could see us through the windows with the radio on and all. Super exciting and a bit scary. For perspective, that wood you see next to the water hole is 23 1/2 inches high.

Western screech-owl

Ron Niebrugge Arizona, Photos, Travel, Tucson 3 Comments

Western screech-owl, Tortolita Mountains, Marana, near Tucson, Arizona.

Such a treat to listen to and watch this Western screech-owl who nest near our driveway. It rarely pops its head out until it is a bit darker, but a couple of days ago he made an appearance a good half hour or more before sunset so I was able to capture this photo. This was at our Desert Photo Retreat.