On 12/15/11, Brent Watson <brentjwatson@yahoo.com> wrote:
Yes, they are ant hills. You can see them in many parts of the west.
My then-4-1/2-year-old daughter and I had a run-in with an ant hill when out in the west desert photographing comet Hale-Bopp in '97. That was quite an experience. Her mom was working nights at the time so I took the kid along. Imagine me trying to keep one eye at the guiding eyepiece and the other on the kid running around in the dark, at the same time. She was a handful and not interested in the boring stuff dad was doing, just having a fun adventure in the dark past her bedtime. Then she had to pee and of course managed to do her business on a small ant hill! Astrophotography had to take a break while I brushed the ants off of her. Fortunately she wasn't stung, but we still laugh about it today. She's almost 20 now. Amazingly, I got some very good comet shots of up to 5-minute exposures! And a great memory.