This is the first installment of the journal of my trip to Ruby, Arizona.  Photos will appear elsewhere, and I will provide links once they are posted.

8/14/2009 Friday

I drove from Canton, Missouri to Tucumcari, NM, about 15 h.  There was a pleasant surprise in Kansas City where a Corvette club was at a rest stop that I visited.  I got some decent car photos.  The usual western Kansas wind wasn’t blowing too hard, but a big rainstorm over OK & TX resulted in a nice rainbow.  I stayed at a motel, too tired to look around for the campground.

8/15

I drove from Tucumcari to Ruby, Arizona.  There were hills & headwinds.  I drove up to the camp and saw Jon Hastings.  I yelled out the window, “¿Donde estan las avispas?” (where are the wasps).  I don’t think he knew it was me at first, as there were many people visiting there on the weekend.  I met up with Chuck Holliday shortly afterward.  These are my two collaborators.  We’ve been working together for several years, almost 10 for me and Chuck.  We were camping on sand in Chuck’s nice travel trailer.  There were no hook-ups.  We used outhouses, drove to town (Arivaca, 30 min away) for water, and had a generator for occasional 110 electricity.  We could get hot showers using propane, but often it was easier to just bathe in the lake.  We had refrigeration, but no air conditioning.  So you could say we were only moderately roughing it.  I went fishing the first afternoon, but was skunked.  I had been told there were 10-lb bass in Mineral Lake, and I came prepared.  The guys had put out three hummingbird feeders, and we had hummingbirds galore: Rufous, Broad-billed, Black-chinned, Anna’s, and I think I saw one Calliope.

8/16

In the morning I did data collection—thorax temperatures of mating wasps.  The results were surprising.  There was a high wasp density, so we had plenty of animals.  I discovered seven spotted toads hiding under a piece of plywood on the dune.  We saw them all the time, as they would hop around at night, then burrow under anything they could find, like our coolers and tubs.

I put my bike together and set up my hammock in a mesquite tree.  The hammock ended up getting far more use.  Jon saw a black-tailed  rattlesnake about a quarter mile away from camp.  We grabbed cameras and ran after it, but couldn’t find it. 

I went up to see the bats in the evening. It was very impressive, as an estimated 150,000 Mexican free-tailed bats streamed out.  We hike up the ridge to get reception to call out on our cell phones.  It was farther than I thought, and I ended up not calling as much as I intended. 

Ruby is so far from civilization that the stars are incredibly clear at night.  Jupiter’s moons and the Milky Way were particularly striking.  It’s also incredibly quiet there.  There’s no street and little air traffic.  Much of the time all you hear are natural sounds.  This condition is rare in our modern world.

8/17/09

In the morning I did grab & stab (body temperature measurements) on male wasps.  We were having some trouble charging the batteries in the trailer with the generator.  As they were 5 years old, I suggested they were probably worn out.  Chuck went to Green Valley (1 hour) for more batteries.

We saw a big tarantula hawk (wasp of the genus Pepsis) on a tree.  I saw and photographed some new dragonflies.  We took a swim, and I jumped off the rope swing.  As the lake level fell during our stay, it became unsafe to do so later. 

Sundog brought us jack rabbit stew for dinner.  It was delicious.  Sundog is the caretaker of Ruby and it’s only full-time resident.  He’s quite a colorful character that would take some time to describe, and I probably won’t try.  He lives off the land to a great extent.

8/18/09

We did lek censuses of the males every 15 min. from before sunrise to sunset;taking only small breaks.  This is a kind of brutal measurement (and my idea!) because we all had to be out in the sun nearly all day.  Fortunately, the data turned out well.

We went swimming to cool off.  I took some time to fish in the evening, catching a 10” bass from mineral lake, and 2 12 inchers from Ruby lake, all on a green senko worm.  I saw a yellow-billed cuckoo take a prey item from water.  That was cool, and I think it’s a life bird for me.  We also saw a Sonoran whipsnake eat a black-necked garter snake

8/19/09

I got some more mating temperatures.  It turned out that the females were coolest, and the successful male hottest.  I wouldn’t have predicted this.  Jon and I marked females for a long time.  At one point, a military jet flew over very low, and very loud.  I almost laid on the ground.  I never did see it. 

Chuck returned to PA for a week, flying out of Tucson.  Jon and I went on a hike up Montana Peak, the dominant feature of Ruby’s landscape.  We saw Montezuma quail (another life bird), Coue’s whitetail deer, and various butterflies.  We also saw plenty of evidence of the wetbacks using a major smuggler’s route.  (Disclaimer:”wetback” is a pejorative term, but down there it is a term of convenience used by all, even those clearly not racist).

8/20/09

We did an early basking tree census for males, and spent time marking females & males. 

Jon and I went to Arivaca for lunch, laundry, email, and groceries.  We had the first wind/sand/rainstorm that night.  It’s awful.  Fine grit gets on everything.  I did photograph a nice double rainbow though.

8/21

I took a dragonfly walk, using the long lens, and went up to Eagle Lake.  There were a gazillion bullfrogs there.  That’s where Sundog shoots them for food.  Sundog brought me some bat guano, so that I can show my classes.  It’s great fertilizer.  I was digging through the trash and found some old Gatorade bottles I was going to put the guano in.  Jon said, “Joe, those are piss bottles.”  I used deli cups instead.

I took an afternoon nap.  When I woke up, I was talking to Jon a bit, when I heard, “Excuse me” twice.  I looked at Jon, and it didn’t appear to be him that said it.  I turned around and there was a wetback looking through the front window of the trailer.  He asked for some water, which we gave him.  I employed my Spanish as best I could.  He kept asking about the Immigration.  I said, yes, they come here often.  It took me awhile to figure out that he wanted to find them.  He was giving up, and wanted to go back to Mexico.  We talked to Sundog for advice and ended up posting the guy at the gate, driving up to a pass and calling the Border Patrol.  They came and got him. 

We saw two mule deer bucks on our way to Arivaca, where we enjoyed the standing Friday night jam session.  It runs to mostly folk & oldies.  It’s different every time, as different people show up.  Mostly it’s guitar players who know a few chords, but there are a few people who are quite skilled.  Peter Ragan, who went with us on many hikes, plays the washtub base.  You wouldn’t imagine what he can do with one string.  It was raining and we found a Colorado River Toad on the road on the way back to Ruby.  Sundog picked it up and I photographed it the next day.

8/22/09

I saw a Sonoran mud turtle and spent some time walking the ghost town.  Jon dug up some wasp burrows, and I helped fill them when he was done. 

I fished Mineral lake and caught 4 bass, 1 of which was 1.5 lb.  I saw a hawk on a log at the end of the lake, maneuvered the kayak toward it and kept taking photos every few yards.  It allowed me to get quite close as it flew over to the shore and caught a frog.  Cool. 

I met some of the owners of Ruby, Howard & his son Liam.  They are happy to have people doing research there, and let us stay for free.  Most visitors, fishers and campers have to pay a fee. 

8/23/09

I took body temperatures of early morning basking males.  Not surprisingly, they were relatively cold

I was trying to take temperatures of provisioning females, and captured only 7 all day.  With the 1^st one I was jumping up & down with joy.

We had some visitors: 2 Fish & Wildlife ladies.  They were herpetologists, and had been out driving the roads at night looking for snakes and frogs.  They had photographed some very rare ones.  Two forest service firefighters came in.  We introduced ourselves and they told us how to find the trailhead to the fire lookout in the Atascosa Range. 

I ran into Howard & his wife Pat, and we talked fishing. 

Some of the hummingbirds are aggressive at defending the feeders.  During one combat, a hummer broke its wing, fell down and died.

We went up to watch the bats emerge again.  They come out in two separate groups, one before sunset and one after.  We watched the 1^st flight emerge.  They mill about first, then come boiling out.  I took lots of pics.  One crashed, then recovered & flew off.

8/24/09

Jon and I hiked up the trail to the Forest Service Fire Lookout in the Atascosa Mountains.  We started early, so it was cool, comfortable, and even a little muddy.  The Lookout is no longer used, but you can spend the night there.  We saw a small Western Diamondback Rattlesnake on the way down.  It only had two segments to its rattle—a youngster.  We drove east to Pena Blanca, ate lunch, then south to Nogales.  We went to WalMart for food & fishing gear.  Once back at camp, I restrung both reels with new line.  I caught two bass about a foot-long.