“Ah! Mama! There’s a weird Paparazzo pointing a bazooka at us.”
Yesterday, David, a neighbor to the north, said he saw two owlets down by where he lives. We went to check it out and only saw an adult owl. I went back to see if they were out tonight. Not only were they out, but the owlet’s mama was also feeding one of them a squirrel.
This owlet looks like the older of the two.
The mama was not too sure about the pesky Paparrazo.
Cows at sunset
Mary and Paul were still plotting their flight across the ditch tonight. Peter is still waiting for them.
“Hey, Mary do you think you can make the flight?” “I’m not sure. I need more practice!”
“I’ll give it a try!” “High beak!”
“Hahahaha! I think we can do it!”
Paul and Mary were very active tonight flying from one spot to another on the tree. I will not be surprised if they fly to the trees between the ditches tonight.
After howling winds blew most of the night from 9:30 pm to 4:00 am, the sky was full of smoke in the morning. The winds had fanned the fires burning in New Mexico. If you are feeling the burn it could be because Uranus is “very close to Sun…” Uranus rises at 5:28 am on May 17th, and it’s “just 10 degrees from the Sun in the sky, so it is difficult or impossible to see it.”
Paul (lower left) and Mary (upper right) were still in the big cottonwood that the nest is in.
When I first walked up to the tree where I could see Mama Owl and Peter, Mama Owl looked like she was chewing on her paw. Then she started nuzzling Peter. I could not tell if she was trying to feed him something or groom him. She finally noticed the clicks of my shutter and looked back with a look of “Who’s that clickity clacking a camera behind my back?” She had a squint like Clint, with her ear tufts back, and looked rather mean and bothered. I said, “It is only I the lowly paparazzo!” She seemed to recognize me and put her ear tufts up giving me a little happier look.
Mary stretched her wing trying to wake up. Daddy was getting a little shuteye. Mary couldn’t get up so Paul decided to snooze as well.
Mary finally woke up enough to peek out over the edge of the nest and say hello.
Mama Owl giving a hoot at sunset.
Mary and Paul made flew to the big trunk on the tree.
Mary on the side of the truck above Paul in the crotch of the tree.
May Flower Moon Rising through the clouds.
As the old adage of Murphy’s law states: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” While we have had clear night skies for weeks out here, the night we the super bloody May flower moon rise, and go through a bloody eclipse, clouds blow in. I really can’t complain, I got the full eclipse and bloody moon, but then I felt a warm wind on my shoulder and clouds blew in a covered the moon. Therefore, I did not get the second half of the eclipse. However, the clouds added some interest before the covered up the moon completely. At least the clouds could do is rain on us, but so far only a lot of hot wind.
I started photographing the moon at the river, but once it was in the clouds, I photographed the rest of what I was able to get of the eclipse from our property.
The May Flower moon rising with the eclipse just starting.
Photos for the night sky and eclipse taken with my iPhone.
The clouds added interest to the eclipse.
The total eclipse before the thick clouds blew in and covered up the moon.
A couple of Flycatchers were frolicking in a tree under the bright morning sun.
Mary and Daddy Owl
Paul trying to get a little shade from the branch above him.
Mary and Paul in the morning and at dusk.
Peter was high in a cottonwood across the ditch from the nest enjoying the shade in the morning. At dusk, he was on a different branch where he had a good view of the Clearwater ditch and bosque. He was much harder for me to see between the leaves and branches.
The moon was at 96.9% full tonight. It doesn’t pass the meridian tomorrow night, and it will be eclipsed into a super flower blood moon.
We did not see the Peter, the owlet that flew the coop, tonight. He might have flown over to the bosque. Paul, the larger of these two, looks like he’s ready to fly. But poor little Mary still has some growing to do.
Off Center & Not Even 