Sasha Kitty modeling on my dusty MX-5.
Sasha On My MX-5
Category: Animals
Bye Bye Blue
Blue, our 19 year old boa constrictor, who is soon to turn 20, has flown the coup, so to speak. She moved out of our house, and moved in with Tristan. Blue will be happy at Tristan’s because she will get more attention now. I’m not supposed to handle reptiles because of my compromised immune system; therefore, I only handled Blue to get her out of her cage to feed her and clean her cage; and most of the handling was with a snake stick. She is a family snake and has lived with Tristan before.
Cater-Mortis
Silver in states of Cater-Mortis†.
†Cater-Mortis is a rigid state of kitty sleep.
Stormy Sunday
We had thunderstorms coming in from all directions this afternoon. The thunderstorm that built up over the Sandias was the most dramatic. While out on a walk before the storms, I encountered a little bit of wildlife.
Buckeye Butterfly
This video of the Great Purple Hairstreak Butterfly shows how it moves the flanges on the ends of its wings while it feeds. I assume it’s to fool predators into going after the flanges on its wings, giving it a chance to escape.
Blue Hairstreak
Silver kitty
Thunderstorm activity to the north.
Cooper’s Cry
We where walking on the levee well after sundown, when we heard a cry that sounded somewhat like a monkey. We looked in the trees, but could not see who was crying. Then we saw a bird jump from branch to branch. Finally a Copper’s Hawk settled on a branch where we had a better view, and I was able to get photos of it through the branches and leaves. It jumped to another branch where it was mostly hidden, but then a much larger bird, flapped it’s wings closer to the Cooper’s Hawk; but it remained hidden behind branches and leaves. The Cooper’s Hawk flew back to another branch where I was able to get another photo of it before it took off into the bosque. A Great Horned Owl (possibly Virginia) flew out from behind the branches and leaves into the bosque a few moments later. I presume the owl was after the Cooper’s Hawk’s chicks and the Cooper’s Hawk was trying to distract the owl with it’s crying. Great horned owls are three to four times larger than Cooper’s Hawks, and could easily make a meal of an adult Cooper’s Hawk, which is probably why the Copper’s Hawk was not attacking the owl.
Leave Me Bee Sam-I-am
A bee, I’ll call Wild-B, was minding his own business collecting pollen on an echinacea, when another bee, I’ll call Sam-I-am, started buzzing Wild-B. Wild-B held his position and stuck out his pollen laden back legs as he tried to block and discourage Sam-I-am from buzzing him. Sam-I-am was quite pesky, but finally moved on after a Bumble Bee landed on the echinacea. Wild-B also took off once the Bumble Bee started making his way around the flower in Wild-B’s direction.
You’re Bothering Me
Bufo Bluegrass in the Bosque
Everybody wants to get in on the Off Center & Not Even music scene these days. We came across a group of toads (Bufo woodhousii) in the bosque last night that call themselves The Kaleidoscopic Croakers, which is rather obvious from the photo I took of them under the light of our phones. They croaked out a bluegrass-like tune for us that they call A Chorus of Crazy Croaking.
Donkey Roll
One happy donkey rolling in the dirt.
Dumpsta-Spunk: CODA
CODA is Spunk’s first solo release. He catches his tail, carries it around, and sings us a musical tale about his tail a cappella. Spunk and I decided we needed arrange a funky tune to complement his Dumpsta-Spunk singing style.
