Some Great Macro Pictures of the Zion Snail

This is quite a good image of the Zion Snail.

On a beautiful early spring day, I was in Zion National park. Among many of the things it is famous for are its rock seeps and springs. Water falling on the Colorado plateau percolates down into the rock, and eventually flows from the more porous stone as is encounters less porous layers. One of the shorter hikes in the park showcases this quite nicely, the weeping rock. More can be seen around the park, including those I was headed for. These springs create a unique and stable habitat, home to many endemic species. Of these unique species the most “famous” is Physa zionis, the Zion Snail. It is mentioned and shown in both the park's informational video and a sign at the visitor center. It is a tiny species of bladder snail, about the size of a pinhead, that is only found in a few locations on the planet, all within Zion National park. I had just purchased an adaptor that could rotate my lens around, converting it into a macro lens for just a few dollars. My goal was to photograph this very small and very special organism.

Clouds envelop some of the Sandstone cliffs of Zion Canyon, early in the day the canyon had quit low cloud cover from the recent rains.

Zion was quite interesting on this day, low cloud cover partially obscured the red canyon walls. The park's parking lot was completely full, and so we had to park the car outside. Zion is quite special for a National Park, as you can just walk in. The town of Springdale is right at the mouth of the canyon, and you can just walk over a bridge and you are in Zion National Park. To reduce crowding the park does not allow people to drive up the canyon, so you must board shuttle buses that make stops at the trailheads of the big hikes. Riding up the road into the heart of the park I was able to spot two peregrine falcons. These birds nest on the steep sandstone cliffs of the canyon. The drive up is quite picturesque as you make you way up a riparian corridor, and you can see mule deer, turkeys, and larger birds like Steller's jays. You pass the Zion Lodge and Angel's Landing, with its shear cliff faces and crowded summit. After going passed all this, the bus pulled up at the Temple of Sinawava. This is the last stop on the bus system and leads to the start of the World famous Zion Narrows. I have done this hike before, and it is quite the adventure. You hike up the Virgin River, with the steep canyon walls rising above you on both sides. On this particular day, the spring rains made the river run muddy and fast, I am not sure you would want to attempt the narrow, you might have been swept down river.

A beautiful waterfall pouring down the sandstone cliffs of Zion Canyon. I slowed the shutter speed down to give the falls a silky appearance.

The recent rainfall meant waterfalls were prevalent, with a high one flowing right off the edge of the canyon, and several more were along the trail. The Riverside walk as it is called, is paved and you could get a wheelchair down it if you really wanted to. Many of Zions trails are like this and it is quite rough on your feet by the end of the day. Along the Riverside Walk path you can see a variety of wildlife. Canyon wrens call from there unseen nooks, as rock squirrels rustle through the brush along the tails edge. People have been feeding these large rodents, despite the several hundred dollar fine for doing so, and they will come right up to you. I felt a little too close. I saw kids get right up to them. A man even had his phone, and fingers, mere inches from one's head. These animals have sharp teeth and could give a nasty bite. I jokingly wondered; if one took a bit of your finger off, would you have to pay a fine for feeding the squirrels?

A beautiful hanging garden in Zion National Park, with plants growing out of cracks in the rock.

I finally got far enough along the trail to reach the hanging garden springs. This is a magical place of dripping water and plants growing right out of the stone, something truly special to behold. I began my search for my quarry. They blend in quite well with the bits of organic debris and this makes them nearly impossible to spot. I previously had found a few in a smaller spring here, but could not locate any in this spot. I reached the biggest wall; an American Dipper jumped around the wall and hanging vegetation. It was here that I found a single snail.

Water dripping down a hanging garden in Zion National Park

Quickly attaching my macro adaptor and flipping the lens, I got to photographing the specimen. I was still new to learning how the adaptor worked and so my aperture was closed all the way down, making my shots so dark I had to use flash. This brought out some detail by removing some of the waters reflection, allowing you to actually tell that it is a snail. I also filmed it moving along but the high ISO makes it quite grainy, and the lack of a good stabilizer makes it a little shaky.

While photographing the snail, a group of people rounded the corner. A man was telling two others to look out for the snails. As they walked nearer I said, “I got one right here.” They were quite excited to see the tiny animal and tried to find more, but among all the tiny bits of organic material the snails are all but invisible. Although it is probably best to leave the species alone in its little refuge and to keep it a secret, I feel it is worth sharing; snails are not something people are usually excited about. Most people just obviously walk by, or put their hands on the wall, feeling the springs flow, which I personally would kind of discourage since who knows what oils or chemicals on our hands could do to these little animals and this ecosystem.

An even closer macro shot of the Zion Snail

I began the short walk back to the bus stop to continue my quick one day tour of Zion canyon. I would recommend the Riverside Walk to nature lovers, and as long as you are careful around the dripping springs and hanging gardens you may get the chance to see this incredible little creature and its incredible little ecosystem. Late afternoon was beginning to set in as I walked up to the road. Up above the red rock cliffs, I saw the moon. It looked really neat and I had to take the shot. With that done I boarded the bus and headed down canyon for the next hike.

The Moon over the Cliffs of Zion Canyon

Endangered Birds living in the City

The Tricolored Blackbird (Agelaius tricolor) is an endangered species. Despite this I found and photographed a flock that was hanging around a Hampton Inn and Costco Parking lot.

When most people picture endangered species, they think of tigers in a pristine jungle, or elephants out on the African Savannah. We see urban environments as a place where a few tough organisms can survive off our trash. For birds this often includes species like feral pigeons, European starlings, and house sparrows. In North America several native blackbirds join these exotic species, generally these are species like Brewer's blackbird, various grackle species, and the occasional red-wing blackbird.

The California Bicolored Subspecies of the Red-winged Blackbird. Note its red only patches; in other parts of North America Red-winged Blackbirds have a golden-yellow patch above the red. This subspecies actually makes identifying Tricolored Blackbirds easier, as you could confuse the yellow for the white.

Most blackbird though have a tendency to prefer more rural settings, being easily found Along fence posts and fields as you leave suburban sprawl. Among these is the Tricolored Blackbird. It is endemic to the central valley of California, wedged between the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific Ocean. It's range however does extend North into Oregon and South into Baja. It is very similar in appearance to the red-wing blackbird it's main difference is a white stripe above it's red wing patch, while most red wings have a yellow stripe above the red patch (although in areas the tricolor inhabits you are likely to encounter the California Bicolor subspecies, which lacks any stripes above it's red patches) However, the tricolors behavior is quite different, red wing black birds are usually associated with water and marshes in my observation, while the tricolor acts similarly to species like the Brewers blackbird or cowbird, and prefers open fields and grasslands. Tricolors are also endangered. Although there are about 300,000 in the world, and that number is declining. These blackbirds are threatened on several fronts; their native grasslands and wetlands have been developed or converted to agriculture. The insects they feed on have been poisoned and are not in sufficient numbers to feed the blackbird populations. They also seem to have a similar problem to the now extinct passenger pigeon; They prefer to nest in colonies over 10,000 strong. As their populations decline this could mean some populations may stop breeding and die out, because they become too small to successfully nest.

Tricolored Blackbirds Foraging in a dry field, this looks like a more natural setting, but it is still just next to the Hampton Inn I was staying at.

I have been gone searching a few times for this bird. In 2017, I saw them on ebird and took off to the farm fields south of Folsom (a town east of Sacramento). Driving along roads among fenced in fields, I saw a large flock of birds and quickly zoned in on a single male with bold white stripes above red patches. It was the Tricolored blackbird. Later that year I was back in Folsom again. On this particular morning, my parents had gone out for a morning walk around the hotel, which is pretty good birding, but very consistent species like Northern Mockingbirds, Great-tailed Grackles, and the Common Gallinule. My dad came back and began telling me the whole parking lot was filled with Tricolored blackbirds. I assumed it was some kind of joke, why would an endangered species be hanging out in a Hampton inn parking lot. They had to be entirely fictitious or a misidentification. However, he insisted the were there so I grabbed my camera and headed outside. To my surprise a whole flock of Tricolored blackbirds were wandering around the hotel parking lot, construction out back, and little dry field next to the hotel. Following the flock around I was led to the in-and out burger were they enjoyed a meal of dropped french fries. My guess was that it could be the same flock I had seen earlier in the year. It was not all that far from the site south of town. I however really have no idea, and maybe someone far more familiar with the species in the area could give me an answer.

Six Endangered Tricolored Blackbirds take off from a tree above an In-and-Out Burger

The birds were there the rest of the trip, I even saw them in the nearby Costco Parking lot hanging out with House Sparrows and Brewer's Blackbirds, running under vehicles. I was quite surprised how easily they fit in with the other “trash birds.” Even some young birds being fed by their parents were part of the flock. The next time I came back to the area though they were gone, and I am very curious if this was just a fluke that the flock was behaving this way, or if they do this regularly. Perhaps it is a good sign they can adapt to an urban environment, but it could also mean there wasn't enough food in the more rural areas, so they were forced into town.

A Tricolored Blackbird perched on a parking lot light. Finding these endangered birds right in the mix with suburban life was both promising an quite sad.

Sources

BirdLife International (2012). "Agelaius tricolor". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 15 April 2018.

Trouble With Trogons

The Elegant Trogon (Trogon elegans) is on of the most colorful birds in the United States.

Few Birds in North America capture a birders imagination like the Elegant Trogon. Trogons are a birds found throughout the world's tropics. However, A few species can be found in more temperate habitats. The Elegant Trogon is the most Northerly living of trogons. Found mostly in the mountains of Mexico, it's range just barely extends into the United States in a few places. Their presence is a major draw to places like Madera Canyon; just check out the Santa Rita Lodge gift shop: Trogon pins, Native American Pottery depicting trogons, Trogon socks, etcetera. I caught Trogon fever, and took my high school graduation trip to southern Arizona. Not only that, I decided I wanted to finally get into SLRs to get a gorgeous picture of this exotic bird.

On the day I was here Madera Canyon felt like a "Lost World" with the peaks enveloped in clouds.

So my first shot at the species was in Madera Canyon, the first really mountainous stop in southern Arizona on the trip. Checking Ebird, the location to be was the Carrie-nation trail, which heads up canyon from the end of the canyon road. Two Sulfur-bellied Flycatchers flew around just above the parking lot. Waking up I saw my first bridled titmouse and saw the beautiful Arizona Sister butterfly drinking from the creek bed. Then from the above came the call of the Trogon. It is an unmistakable sound, which sounds, no joke, exactly like a barking chihuahua. Following the racket up the trail. I finally deduced it was on the hill side, so to get my picture I rushed up the steep slope through the poison ivy. There I set eyes on the bird, but as I lifted my camera he flew off his perch and into the canopy. After picking my way down the hill I heard the bird further away. The next year when I came back, I was talking to a guy staffing the Santa Rita Lodge gift shop and told this story, I learned this particular bird has befuddled many a birder, leading them to the top of his territory, calling the whole way, only to fly silently back to the bottom and resume calling; while being easily observed by average hikers. We then had a quick conversation on why the bird behaved this way, was it messing with birders, or was some behavior of birders actually more disturbing than people wondering by having a conversation. I figured someone shushing sounds a little like a Jay.

Hoodoos in Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona. These rock formations look very different than those commonly seen in the Colorado plateau region to the north. I live the green on the dark rocks, gives it an "exotic" look

After my failed attempt to get my sought after picture in Madera, I headed east to the Chiricahua Mountains. This little mountain range has some truly spectacular hoodoos, and a great variety of Mexican Birds. Trogons appear to be pretty uncommon on the Western side of the range, in the national monument. However, on the eastern side, Ebird indicated that Cave Creek Canyon was where trogons could be seen. Driving over the top of the Chiricahua Mountains is a highly recommend place to go birding, on the way up I got the red-face warbler. The descent into Cave Creek was a bit rough and steep and wore the breaks off the car. The place to go is the South Fork of Cave Creek, an abandoned washed out road. On the journey up an A-10 Thunderbolt flew through the canyon at low altitude. Eventually though I turned around to head off to the Cave creek lodge, which has feeders that bring in many species. Talking to them they said the Trogon had been sited in the South fork that day so I went back. Around a pair of cabins (which I joked would be a great place to own, and have Trogon nest boxes) the barking began and a male Trogon flew down to road at me. I finally got my Trogon shots I had wanted, but they were far from perfect.

An Elegant Trogon Perched above me in the South Fork of Cave Creek Canyon

The next year I enrolled in a Desert Ecology class through University, and headed back down for spring break. We got to stay in the Santa Rita Experimental range in Florida Canyon, right next to Madera. Better yet, a Trogon was seen regularly only a few hundred feet from where I was sleeping. I went out every day when I had free time. Yet the Trogon never showed up. Finally, one night I was waiting with one of the TAs in the parking lot where the bird had been seen; we were with a group of birders also looking for it. We ended up discussing the really rare animal of the Santa Ritas, a jaguar which had been detected by camera traps, and was the only Jaguar known to currently be wild in the United Sates. After they left as the sky darkened, the trogon burst across the parking lot calling loudly, disappearing just as quickly into the gloom.

Several Goldfinches Perched on Ocotillo Plants. The Ocotillo may be may favorite plant in the Sonoran Desert.

It was finally down to the last day of the class, we would be headed up north the next mourning. During the heat of the day I got the ABA rarity, the Black Capped Gnatcatcher, which were down the road in a very rocky wash. As evening approached and a large group of people from the class gathered to get the bird, I finally broke down and tried a recording. Recordings are definitely the “Jedi mind tricks” of birding, although maybe not outright bad, they are ethically muddy for sure. In Madera they are highly discouraged, as they have been known to habituate birds and probably fakes out birders. Ultimately, in my humble and inexperienced opinion should only be used to locate a bird you are having a lot of trouble with, like a Trogon you have been looking for a week. As soon as a particular recording rang out (which I will not share) the bird appeared. I got the camera up and started exposing images. After taking some incredible looking shots I did a quick check. To my horror the photographs were black and white. Somehow the dial has switched to creative. I quickly got it back to regular and took more shots. But the light was fading and High ISO led to some of the images being a little noisy. I took one flash shot, which ended up quite nice, although I felt it was a bit disturbing the bird, although it didn't seem to pass it or birds I have used it on since. In the end I spent a good long while with the Trogon, photography it as it worked it's way from Perch to Perch until it finally flew into the thicket surrounding the creek.

The most colorful bird in North America, in beautiful black and white. It is an amazing shot of a trogon, but sadly is in Black and White.

The black and white Trogon picture became a bit of a joke, and over time I have come to appreciate my folly. However, I would like to go back and do another photoshoot with this frustrating but exceptional bird.

Trogon Photograph taken with my onboard Flash. It turned turned out quite nice.

Trogon Tips

-listen for and know the trogons call, All of my sightings involved locating the bird by it's call. They disappear very easily if you don't have eyes on them.

-I would discourage using recordings, for three of the 4 times I have seen the bird l, I have not needed them, they are fairly vocal especially when most people are birding in the area so recordings are not necessary.

-When Trogons Perch they stay for about 30 seconds moving their head around, then fly off. This gives you the opportunity to get several shots with the head at different angles.

A nice picture taken strait on with the bird. This was among the last images before it took off into the gloom of dusk