By late afternoon there were no clouds, no owls, no Pteradactyl, no squadrons of fighter ducks. Simply blue skies, a little snow lining the crest of the Sandias, a ragged Cormorant, a lonely crane, and a time-lapse video.
Above is a time-lapse video Tristan took of the balloons and clouds this morning. This video really shows how the winds blow in different directions at different altitudes in Albuquerque, which makes it easy to navigate hot air balloons around the Albuquerque area.
Cormorant
A little bit of snow along the top of the Sandias with the towers.
The cormorant looked ragged under its wings.
Towers in focus.
A lonesome crane flying around looking for other cranes.
Off Center & Not Even 
Looks like that cormorant got put on tumble dry (note, you probably wanted “ragged” there
True. Raged wings as well. I fixed it. Thanks for the edit, Brian. You would think I would be seeing double consonants from losing an hour of sleep. But I guess not. I assume the cormorant is molting, but it does look a little tumbled dry.
Beautiful photos Timothy. I love the colors of the rock. Such gorgeous scenes there.
Thanks, Holly. From white out to rock. That’s the way with weather around here.
Very unpredictable but beautiful!
I enjoyed the pictures, and Tristan’s video. There are a lot of towers up there on the mountains.
Thanks, Lavinia. Lots and lots of towers.
Fascinating images! Loved the balloons.
Thanks, Cindy.
I wonder what your thoughts are on the towers?
Hi Tiffany. Towers have been on the Sandias for as long as I can remember. They provide powerful signal strength for the radio and TV stations here.
These are beautiful pictures. The first landscape looks like my home of the Transvaal, South Africa.
Thanks, Robbie. The landscape in New Mexico is similar to South Africa in many ways.
The imageof Towers in focus is very interesting for my radio heart 🙂
We have lots of radio stations with very strong signals. Thanks, Harry.
The mountains are beautiful with such striking color. Glad they can be seen today!
Loved the balloons!
Thanks, Nancy.
How interesting to see the video with the balloons and how wind directions change with height. That’s quit a communication station on top of The Sandias !
Lot’s of radio waves out here. The “box” wind patterns out here is one reason we host the largest balloon fiesta in the world out here.
even the little bit of snow is bright.
Snow is shiny in the sunlight before in melts. Thanks, Shey.
Painter went for the perfect blue today! What a master! Loved the time-lapse and all the photos. Towers on Sandias look like thorns or the back of a lizard!!!
Great description of the towers. Blue, blue yesterday and I think it will be more blue today. Thanks, Marina.
Sounds nice! That lizard looks great on blue! 😉
Beautiful blue sky really makes the Sandias pop. And that cormorant looks like he just got out of a Roadhouse Brawl!
It probably did cormorants and crazy birds. Thanks, Dale.
🙂
I would love to have been in one of the balloons. Your blue sky seems to go on forever.
Hi Rebecca. One thing I’ve noticed outside of the southwestern USA is skies are so much smaller. It’s really amazing the difference. We have huge, wide-open skies. You need to come to one of our balloon fiestas when things open back up. 500 balloons all going up at the same time on mass ascension days.
One day travel will come back….would love to ride the wind.
The previous whiteout of the Sandias makes one appreciate that beautiful sky the next day. I always like a little gloom to help me miss the sunny skies.
Thanks, Mary Jo. I’m not into gloom.
No pTerodactyl today? Are the balloons on the video other sort of prehistoric birds flying in you area? 🙂 The sceneries are beautiful, and your photographs are really great. We also have Cormorans in my place, I like them and the way they make their wings dry when necessary.
Hi Flo. The balloons are a prehistoric mode of flight. Cormorants and crazy birds. They look really silly when they have their wings spread to dry.
That’s exactly it! But I think they’re funny when they do that. What are the largest birds you can observe where you live?
Bald Eagles are the largest birds we have. We also have Osprey, Red-Tailed Hawks and Black Hawks which are all large raptors. The Sandhill Cranes and Great Blue Heron stand tall and have large wingspans. The Great Horned Owls are also large birds, close to the size of the large hawks.
Bald Eagles are very good fishers, I observed some of them when I was in South Africa. You are lucky to have so many different large birds in your place.
There is a sign on the bridge before you go into the bosque that indicates the bosque is an important bird area. A lot of birds fly up and down the river. Thanks, Flo.
That’s a pretty big antenna farm. How many TV stations does ABQ have?
I’m not sure since I don’t have TV, but I don’t think we have a lot TV stations. The 3 big networks, PBS and there might still be a UHS station around. There might be some Spanish stations as well. Lots of radio station, however.
Locally, we have 40 OTA channels. Most are Spanish language and evangelical. The big 3 of course plus Fox, CW. 8 channels occupy two slots on the dial. One time, we had a synagogue channel – you could “go” to Temple w/o leaving home – which I found interesting. Local radio, maybe 20 stations.
Fox is probably among the TV stations around here.
Wow Tim, excellent work as always. I love the first pic. It’s magnificent.
Thanks, Ruelha.
Most welcome Tim 🙂
The Sandias always blow my mind! The towers are messy looking.
There’s such a gluttony of nature where you live, the towers feel anomalous.
Thanks, Resa. Marina thought the towers on the Sandias looked like a spiny back lizard. I thought that was a good description.
Yes, it’s a great description.