Towhee Tuesday

Blue Grosbeak at dawn

Mama Owl: “I see you pesky paparazzo!”

Mama Owl feeding and grooming the owlets at dawn

Yes Mama Owl, the pesky paparazzo is still here!

On the virge of sunrise

Towhee waiting for the sun to rise

Here comes the sun

“Talk to the tail, Paparazzo!”

A coyote pup followed Jake and I around on our walk in the bosque and on the riverbed.

Summer Tanager

The pup, standing closeby, cocked his head when I spoke to him

Bushtit

The little tike brushed by Jake while we were looking at the Bushtits, then he turned and looked at us like asking, “Well? Did you notice?” I saw him brush by Jakeout of the corner of my eye. Jake didn’t react, as if he didn’t notice.

Wile-E Coyote, Jr. followed us out to South Beach and acted like he wanted to play.

At first, he got too close for the Bazooka to focus (minimum focus in 11 feet), so I had to take a few steps back to get him into focus.

Jake ignored the poor pup’s advances, so the pup found a stick to play with, and then looked a bit sad as we waked away.

Blue Grosbeak

He was singing the blues

The pup followed us to the top of the levee and watched us cross the bridge over the Clearwater ditch, as we disappear behind the cottonwoods along the irrigation ditch. We didn’t see any adult coyotes on our walk in the bosque and on the riverbed.

A hummingbird with a “Don’t mess with me!” look on his face was between us and the coyote pup as we crossed the bridge on our way back to see what the owls were up to.

Mama Owl and Owlet where relaxing.

Laurie got good photos of the mama goose with her two goslings when she went out for a walk this morning.

Blue Grosbeak at dusk

I believe this is a female Black-headed Grosbeak.

Mama Owl waiting for Daddy Owl to bring dinner.

Owlets patiently waiting for dinner.

Can you find the hummingbird and the grosbeak in the above photo?

Sunset

On The Wildlife Side

Snowy Egret at Dawn

Wood Duck

This might be a Yellow-breasted Chat

Coyotes on the run

Mama owl and owlet sleeping and sunrise

Guard Hummingbird and sunset

One owlet at sunset

Wynona Beaver hanging out with us at sunset

Can you find Wynona in the above photo?

Can you find six coyotes in the above photo?

Owlets at dusk

Hummingbird at dusk

Wowlets

Spunk

Stormy skies near sunset

Can you see the owlets?

Daddy Owl on guard duty

What do you think happened to the owner of these sandals?
A) Chupacabra
B) La Llorona
C) Raptured

Can you see the Goose with two goslings in tow?

No rain storm

Mystery Kitty Says Hi!

Dawn

Can you find the owlette?

Sunrise

Gwendolyn

Glenda

Sliver sleeping

Cat 5

Spunk

Loki

Mystery Kitty

The mystery kitty started hanging around last summer, fighting with our cats through the wire in the catio. You can read more about that at https://wp.me/p1yQyy-cr8. He has always run away from us whenever he sees us, but Laurie noticed he’d been looking thin, so she started leaving food and water out for him. He was meowing at the Sally port door this afternoon, and our cats were not fighting with him through the wire. I walked out the door and he ran. I sat down on the step and called him. He slowly came back, sniffed me, got up on the step next to me, and let me pet him for a few seconds before he ran off again. I went back inside and in a few minutes he was meowing at the door again. I took a can of cat food out and put it in his food bowl, and he really appreciated the canned food. I sat on the step with him eating at my feet and took a few photos. He definitely looks rougher than he did when we first started seeing him last summer.

The humming bird that was buzzing aroung us while the mystery kitty was eating.

If you didn’t find the owlet in the long shot, here’s a closer view.

Sunset

Peacock Butterfly

Dawn

Sunrise

A Peacock Butterfly with a piece of its wing missing

I didn’t do it! I swear! I didn’t bite the peacock butterfly.

Eurasian Blackbird

Squirrel Nutkin again

European Robin

European Robin in silhouette

Gray Heron overhead

Atlas: “Why don’t you ever bring any of those birdies home for me, Paparazzo?”

Goldcrest

Freyja: “What about me?”

Illusive Eurasian Jay

Tree over the trail

Sunset

Bedtime

A Dundee Day

Dawn

Stretching wing at dawn

Sunrise

Synchronized seagull sleeping

Great architecture

This high school is as old as it looks.

The post office building

Museum

Grave yard bunny

Where North Sea oil rigs are decommissioned

European Starling

Starling and the Gull

Squirrel on Shey’s back fence

House Sparrow

Dunnock

Ruddy Turnstone

Eurpean Herring Gull

Gray Herron

Sunset

Back From Belgium. Gone To The Dogs!

It was raining in Geel this morning

You can’t have my cake or eat it either, Niki!

You can’t eat the Eurasian Magpie, either…

Or the Eurasian Collared-Dove…

Or the Eurasian Jackdaw..

Or the cute Common Chaffinch!

“What? Are you just going to let me starve?”

Herman took me to aother old church this morning.

There were several of these locked, grated grottoes around the outside of the church with lighted votive candles inside them.

A man driving a small utility truck filled with lighted votive candles in the back stopped and said hi to us and explained to Hermin in Flemish that his job was to keep the candles lit. He had done it for ten years and loved the job.

Nike was watching for us to return from his bed in the garage.

I got back in the late after noon, and returned the rental car. Then we went straight from Enterprise car rental to Trivia at the Irish Pub. There were a couple of Golden Retrievers that came to Trivia Night. The white one really like me, and I had to pet it most of the time. It would put it’s head in my lap when I stopped petting it.

Tristan snuck a picture of me petting the dog. We are not supposed to use phones while a trivia round is in play.

Wildlife Park and Greifvogelzoo Potzberg

I Condor you

We went to the Wildlife Park and Greifvogelzoo (Raptor zoo) in Potzberg about 30 minutes north of Bruchmühlbach-Miesau. The park was conceived in the 1970s as a way to attract tourists, and opened in 1984. Due to financial problems, the park was taken over by private management. The privaate management reinvigerted the park, added conservation programs, breeding of rare and endangered spicies, and reintroducing birds back into the wild. They have so many animals, I took nearly way too many photos. It’s sad to see a lot of the raptors in enclosures, but many, like the Condors, seemed content, wanted to play, and were quite interactive. All the animals were very well taken care of.

While on our morning walk, I thought I finally got the Europen Robin. But no, this bird is a Common Chaffinch.

A European Greenfinch

The ever-present Eurasian Blue Tit.

The hotel at the Wild Like Park

A goatlette crawled under to fence and greeted us.

Red Kites were flying around annoying some of the birds in enclosure

I’m no emo, I’m an Emu

Got it?

Andean Condor

Say Uncle and make the paparazzo laugh!

Foghorn Condor

Two male condors wound follow me back and forth, trying to get to my camera while I was trying to photograph the female condors spreading their wings. They were hilarious.

While we were eating lunch at the castle above Landstuhl, I realized the tower and building (Hotel) on the top of then hill across the way is where the Wild Life park is.

A decent sunset taken from the cemetery across the street.

Love & VD

Sunrise on VD

Besides making a great name for a rock band, Love & VD seemed an appropriate title for VD. The popularity of both in 2026 may be in question as fewer people have been hooking up and shacking up in recent years. For old, married folk, there is plenty of romance to be found in a heart-shaped pizza!

Jake and I walked through a tangled tunnel of love with pink markers this morning, and ran into…

The cranes were not in a loving mood

Jake found himself with a river to the left of him, bosque on the right. There he was, stuck in the middle with tree.

Does anyone remember “Tunnel Of Love” by Dire Straights?

“BIG YAWN! That’s what I think about Love & VD. There’s no way I can love a dawg, especially not a Virtual Dawg!”

We ran into a sweet Bernese Mountain Dog on our evening walk.

The Sandias were a nice VD red at sunset