The cranes were flying in and landing on the Rio Grande in bunches. Click on photos to enlarge them.
These are not technically Fire Rainbows (very rare) because we are below 55º north latitude, and the sun was much lower than 58º above the horizon as the sun was setting. However, the clouds were cirrus, and they obviously had ice crystals acting like prisms refracting sunlight and creating a firey rainbow effect. They are probably run-of-the-mill rainbow clouds.
Sunrise and a crescent moon peeking through the clouds.
Pink clouds make a halo around the Tangle Heart Tree.
Off Center & Not Even 
Fabulous photos!
Thanks, Susan.
Cranes and skies are always a delight, Tim. Beautiful photos.
I loaned my copy of this book to someone long ago and have forgotten who had it, but you might enjoy getting a copy of it somewhere.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/362045.The_Nature_of_Light_and_Colour_in_the_Open_Air
Thanks Lavinia. I just ordered a used copy for $1.50.
Very cool ice cloud – I’ve never seen that effect before. That last shot is a bonafide wall hanger!
Thanks, Brian. I’m not surprised they are supposed to be rare. Do you want a wall size print of the last photo?
I really like it, but I’m probably good on the print front for now simply due to the fact I do not have a place to put it at this point in time – as soon as spot opens up I’ll reach out!
I know exacatacally what you mean about wall space. I already have a lot of photos and paintings stored. After my mom died, my sister brought me all the art and photos my mom had collected from me and Laurie over the years. It’s a lot. I hung a couple in my office, gave several away, and I still have a lot paintings and photos I don’t really have storage space for.
That Sandia shot. Man. Just amazing. I love the owls. Hi birds!
Thanks, Bruce. I was hoping the owls would be out a little earlier tonight but no such luck.
They don’t want it to be too easy for you!
They sure don’t.
Stunning!
Nature is magnificent and you capture her beauty so magnificently! Question: What do you do to make pictures clickable through reader?
Thanks, Michele. You have to use the block editor. I size my photos at roughly 1333 x 2000 px small jpegs. Then they can be enlarged from when you click on them.
Thank you for the tip! I appreciate it.
Magnificent photos, Tim. Skies are always a so glorious, and those clouds are something else. Another owl too. Wonderful. Oh, and the cranes are of course, amazing.
Thanks, Jeff.
Oooh, a Deep Purple fan, a highly cultured man!
I’m not much of a Deep Purple fan. Some of their songs are great for making parodies. Thanks, Orca.
Never seen these fire rainbows, they are realy special ! Nice to see the owls again and my compliments for the first shot of the crane !
Thanks, Rudi.
The first photo with the crane dancing like the legendary Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov made me smile and the shimmering clouds amazed me … – plus all the other beautiful captures.
Thanks, Heidi. A Baryshnikov crane. That’s very insightful. I love it.
My goodness….The cranes are so beautiful.I was thinking how our school reading books would have illustrations, plainly done by some idiot, of them making them look quite ungainly. Your pictures capture their absolute majesty.
It’s amazing how they make school books to mess up our brains. It’s amazing how nothing in the real world came out to be like described in school. Thanks, Shey.
Tell me about it. Them poor cranes got bad press.
Cranes, rainbow clouds, owls, clouds, clouds… clouds… how much beauty can we take?!!!! Wow snd sigh!
OVERDOSE!!!! Nah! You can take I paradise has to throw at you. Thanks, Marina.
With you, it’s a daily ODing!
Here you go: https://youtu.be/nfClieME7Yw
A ha ha haaaaa…. that’s the life!
Fabulous photographs:)
Thanks, Janet.
Great photos, Tim. Thank you for sharing the delightful views of your area. I wish you and your family a wonderful end of the year.
Thanks, Flo. Nice to see you. How was your Christmas?
Actually, it wasn’t really “Christmasy” because one of my sisters caught Covid and the other had to work unexpectedly (she works in a hospital). So we didn’t get together like we do every year. It was quiet, just my husband, Providence and me! 🙂 I hope yours was more joyful!
Relatable pictures, as always! I liked how you explained the phenomenon of rainbow-ish sky.
Always a pleasure to see Cindy’s tree (the heart one, if I’m right?).
Brilliant photography skills you’ve got 😀 You always amaze me.
Thanks, Sam. The Tangle Heart Tree is Holly’s tree. She has House of Heart blog. Did you do anything that was Christmas-like?
Okay, cool.
Christmas-like, actually nothing! It didn’t even feel like Christmas. Didn’t even verbally wish anyone- only through texts. 🙁 Missed plum cake this year!
¿Qué pasó? No plum cake? That sounds really sad.
🙁
We recently shifted to a different city.
Back home, our neighbour was a Christian and they would give us plum cake. Nothing of that sort now 😕
You need another Christian neighbor.
Tim, your images just blow me away as you continue to get better and better. Just wow!! Absolutely stunning photographs!! And I thank you for the e-card!!! Bless you!! xo
Thanks, Amy Rose. You are most welcome.
I enjoy your crane photographs. They are an interesting bird, always look to me like wizards in the fields when I’m traveling through Wisconsin. Read an awful story yesterday about a bird flu decimating the species in Israel.
That’s sad. Bird flu really takes its toll. They are fascinating and beautiful birds. I just read your about. Have you been to Roswell? Thanks, Crow City.
Regrettably no. I wrote a chapter in my memoir about Roswell though. Some day I’ll get down there.
https://www.mnvietnam.org/story/roswell-city-limits/
Excellent memoir. I might have been in your father’s souvenirs shop. He might not have told you what he did and saw in Vietnam even if you asked. He probably had nightmares about the carnage he dealt with daily while he was in Vietnam until the day he died. I know Vietnam vets who will not talk about there time there. It’s such a shame no one reached out to vets and helped when they came home.
Beautiful photos. The clouds are so beautiful!
Thanks, Mya.
A gorgeous collection, Tim. There’s something akin to a rainbow effect with the mountain backdrop with 2 photos of the cranes, colorful anyway. “Fire rainbow’ clouds, and that last bright golden sunrise or sunset with the crane silhouettes? Stunning.
Thanks, Mary Jo.. It’s a sunset on the Sandias. The rainbow clouds are fascinating and beautiful we get them occasionally out here.
Friday night, a winter storm is forecasted to blow in with 1-4 inches of snow. Though a winter aficionado, especially when a snow becomes a blizzard, Megan is not ready for the coming snow. If does come, she can handle an inch. She’d like to empty the closets before it snows.
If it does snow Friday night, it’ll interfere with the fireworks show from Pikes Peak. No can see from the lowlands.
That’s no fun if you can see the show.
Thanks, David. Let’s hope the storm holds out until the closets are bare. Otherwise, she will be Riding The Storm Out.
The first photo is amazing. An the sky, with the birds…wow!
Thanks, Gigi. The cranes are so beautiful flying, but they get a little silly when they come in for landing.
Not sure what I like most.. The Angel wings or the sunset… oh then there are the trees… beautiful Timothy. 💖💖
Thanks, Cindy. Both can be favorites.
Good point -:)
Those are very beautiful clouds!
Thanks, Yellow Cable.
Wonderful pictures! I enjoyed them all.
Thanks, Rebecca.
Gorgeous photos. The cranes are exquisite and the owls so sweet!
I was out back getting some sun when suddenly a flock of blackbirds flew over , there must have been 200 on the formation and they seem to all be cawing at once. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before. Straight out of Sci Fi.
Thanks, Holly, They were taken by your beauty shining in the sun. It sounds both sci-fi and Hitchcockian. The birds, not your body shining in the sun.
Surely it ‘‘twas my beauty that brought on the crows. Thank you dear Tim.
I heard through the Anaheim, Azusa & Cucamonga Crowing Circle that a murder of crows was totally smitten by a beautiful cherry bomb 🍒 💣. Have you seen the Cherry Bomb video? I take it you weren’t available to play the part of Cherry Bomb, so they had to make do with the woman that played the part?
Apparently I missed my invitation to be the Cherry Bomb. Darn! I do appreciate the murder of Crows sending me a fly over!
You would have have turned more heads.
More than over two hundred crows? I’m feeling a rush of power. Stop me before I do something silly.
They were probably led by Odin’s crows going back to report to Odin about the goddess they discovered.
That’s was what all the cawing was about? I get the impression Odin is a lazy one 😊🌼
Odin, who is sometimes called the Raven God, is not lazy, he simply sends his two ravens, Muninn and Huginn (meaning “mind or memory” and “thought”) out every morning in opposite directions to gather news for him. Each raven flies around the world and returns to give Odin the news of what’s happening in the world. Other crows and ravens tag along to see what’s happening, also. Seeing you sunbathing was a news worthy sight for sore raven eyes.
You might find my 4th of July post from last year interesting. I wrote a song based on “Gylfaginning” a saga about the creation of the world, which Odin helped with: https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/pre/pre04.htm.
The song has 17 versus, 5 intro, 7 body and 5 outro. Each verse has 17 syllables in 5, 7, 5 structure in the style of haiku. The music is in 12/8 time. You can see the post at: https://wp.me/p1yQyy-6FF
Thoroughly enjoyed the links, esp the music, you are a creative genius, no if’s or but’s!
Aw. Thanks, Holly.
Thank you!
And there goes the song in my head!
Smokin’. Thanks, Teri.
You’ve excelled yourself there, Tim. Amazing photos!
Thanks, Inchcock.
The pink around the Tangle-Heart is magnificent!
I had to grab the 2 shots. I know the Tangle-Heart is dead. How old do you think it was..is still.
Could it have been around since the 1920’s? (Working on a 20’s fashion show)
The THT was fairly young. Maybe 20 to 25 years old. None of the cottonwoods in the bosque go back to the 20s of last century because the bosque didn’t exist 100 years ago. But given that the THT can travel on time warps, she can be a tree in the last century’s 20s ans easily as this century’s 20s.
TRUE!
Also the whole pink clouds thing is totally 1920’s, into the 1930’s. It’s going to be a fab post. I’ll be using those Tangle-Hearts in it!
Oh my, what a stunning collection Tim … and that last shot is glorious!
Thanks, Julie.
Wow! What a flock of herons. That is so cool.
And there is nothing run-of-the-mill about those clouds. Such a cool phenomenon.
The skies, the owls, the skies…
Thanks, Dale. The clouds are rare but not the birds.
Not for you, anyway 😉