Category: Animals

Today in B&W

Timothy PriceLeave a comment

These trees on the north side of Castetter Hall at UNM are nicely shaped and cast wonderful shadows under the night lights.  Rosencrantz and Mama Manx were snuggled together on the couch, but the minute I pointed the camera at them, they looked up at me.  The clouds were beautiful on the Sandias this morning. Laurie had an appointment at school, so we didn’t have time to make a short detour to the open space across from the Balloon Museum and get a better view of the Sandias without so many buildings and power poles.

Kitty and a Cake

Timothy Price3 Comments

 

We celebrated Laurie’s brother’s birthday tonight. Laurie made a chocolate Irish whiskey cake that was wonderful. Romeo, who is Laurie’s parent’s cat, was being especially cute tonight. The Sandias were in great pink form tonight, so I got up on the roof to get the photo. We are working on upgrading and consolidating our electrical service, which will allow us to remove the power pole with the light on it in the photo of the Sandias.

 

 

 

Crane Dance

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We had cloud cover most of the day, but no precipitation. I went out on the river an hour before sunset and got the cranes flying in for the night. They often dance around after they land. I don’t know if the duck was stretching, dancing or saw something threatening, but he was putting on a show, also.

 

 

 

 

 

Four Cats & A Parrot

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Out of our six cats I got four of them to pose for me tonight. Puck, who is usually a great poser, made me chase him all over the house and catio before he decided to go into “light switch Viper” mode and attacked Laurie before he let me get a few shots of him.  Between the cooler weather and the daily waterboarding, Stretch is looking so much better. I read Tintin in French to Stretch while giving him his fluids a couple of times this while Laurie was getting ready. I think my French on top of the waterboarding was double torture for poor stretch as he growled even louder as I read to him. Diné and Mama Manx headed for the hills when they saw the flashes. I usually don’t use a flash, but now that it gets dark so early, I’ve pulled out the flash. Beaker, our Gold Cap Conure, didn’t seem to be at all bothered by the flash.

Crows

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Wagner plowed the corn field under. The cranes are sparse so far, and there were a few geese, but the crows are really taking advantage of the corn scattered by the plowing.

 

 

 

The Birds

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Crows swarming over the Rio Grande and bosque this afternoon reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds.”  A pair of Sandhill Cranes were trying to land on the river, but they were having a hard time making their way through the swarm of crows. They tried flying through the crows two or three times before the crows thinned out enough for them to land. Each attempt they would start down, zig zag a few times, pull back up and circle around before making another attempt. On one of their circles they got close enough for me to get a clear shot of them above the crows. A flotilla of geese were leisurely floating down the Rio Grand to where they spend the night about a quarter mile from where I was standing.  When they saw me on the bank they turned into the current and started treading water, staying in the same spot for some time while they discussed among themselves whether or not is was safe to float on by me.  They finally decided to stay in the water and continued on their way, hugging the far bank as they floated past me. A couple of ducks floated down after the geese, but they decided it wasn’t safe to float on by me and took flight.

Love & Manx

Timothy Price3 Comments

 

Between nights in the low 20’s and day time temps reaching into the 70’s, the rose bushes have a variety of fresh to freeze dried blooms. Mama Manx was looking in the window hoping one of us would let her in. Laurie made note of how cute she looked, while I photographed her. The kitty was very patient staring through the glass and screen until we finally let her in.

We headed out early this morning, in sub-freezing temperatures, all bundled up,  with coffee and Kindles in hand, prepared to brave the line and elements to exercise out right to vote — but there was no line. The poll workers outnumbered the voters, so we ended up spending about as much time saying hi to an old friend attending the vote scanner as we did voting.

 

 

 

 

Roadrunner Art

Timothy Price4 Comments

I hadn’t seen a roadrunner in our yard in several years. About 20 years ago we were infested with roadrunners. There would be a half dozen or more hanging around in the yard just about any time we went outside. When we were out working in the garden, the roadrunners would surround us, staying about 15 feet away, and walk circles around us, one direction then the other, cocking their heads as the eyed us up one side and down the other. I figured they were sizing us up to determine if they had sufficient numbers to take us down. One year they simply disappeared and I haven’t really seen roadrunners in the yard again until yesterday. I got the photo of the dogs in the back of the truck on our way home tonight.