Category: Animals

Wasp In Winter

Timothy Price60 Comments

Wasp? Did I hear you say Wasp in winter?

Tristan found this wasp with her wings tucked under her while we were setting up for Reyes. Tristan put the wasp in a container with some honey to see how long she will last. The wasp may be an old lady since she was found snuggled up by herself in one of our cushions on the deck.

Towhees toodling together in Dr. Huey.

Loading Up The Z

Timothy Price80 Comments

Not a cloud in the sky tonight after several days of cloudy skies. We even got a little rain. The temperature was 28º F (-2.22º C) at sunset. It’s going to be really cold tonight.

We hired Cary with Cary’s Garage here in Corrales to get Tristan’s 1980 Datsun 280ZX back on the road. It’s been sitting under Gabriela’s cottonwood for the past 7 years. The starter had caught on fire in 2014, and we never got around to replacing it.

The footage Laurie took of the loading is quite entertaining.

Cranes flying into the sunset from a few nights back.

Happy Moo Year

Timothy Price75 Comments

I think the bright light in the cloud is either a UFO or the grumpy old man to the left is shining a flashlight through the cloud. The light can’t be from the moon, because the moon rose at 6:45 am this morning (the skies were overcast), and it set at 4:00 pm this afternoon. We have a new moon tomorrow morning.

End Of Year PSA

Timothy Price53 Comments

With all the hoopla about Omicron, we must not forget about other diseases that run amok like Space Herpes (you can learn more about space herpes at https://news.sky.com/story/nasa-issues-space-herpes-warning-as-virus-reactivates-in-astronauts-11669335). I brought Space Herpes to the attention of OC&NE readers in March of 2020. While the video I put together in 2020 was decent, the parody, which I originally recorded in 2018, was really bloody awful. I completely redid the music and recorded new vocals between a dentist appointment at dawn and shopping for ingredients for New Year’s black-eyed peas in the afternoon. The parody is now a much better PSA. Lyrics are at the end of the post.

1st photo: Dawn from the dentist’s office. 2nd photo: Moon peeking through the clouds at the dentist’s office. 3rd photo: Sunrise through the bedroom window by Laurie.

Sasha showing us her belly. I don’t think your allergies are space herpes, Sasha.

Sunset from the grocery store parking lot. I thought I was going to miss sunset tonight, but the painter made sure we got a good showing from the store. She didn’t want to disappoint Marina. Marina doesn’t need withdrawals from her daily OD on New Mexico’s Naturaleza at the end of the year.

Space Herpes
Music: Deep Purple
Lyrics: Timothy Price

Well we lip-locked with the Vals on Venus
We were making out a lot on Mars
We’re smooching with the groovy aliens
Kissed across the universe afar

We messed around with Borealis
We got space herpes from the stars

Oh no oh no oh no
we got space herpes
oh no oh no oh no
space herpes

Remember when we kissed the moon rocks
Swinging around the Milky Way
We found Uranus was a rude shock
Pluto doesn’t see the light of day

We’re messin’ round in the solar system
And got space herpes along the way

Oh no oh no oh no
we got space herpes
oh no oh no oh no
space herpes

The Fireball we drank was burning
And now we have a new routine
Yeah yeah yeah yeah Marline said
They can kiss, but they cannot sing

We’re messin’ round in the solar system
Swinging around the Milky Way
We messed around with Borealis
Got space herpes every day

Oh no oh no oh no
we got space herpes
oh no oh no oh no
space herpes

Oh no oh no oh no
we got space herpes
oh no oh no oh no
space herpes

Cranes On The Water, Fire Rainbows In The Sky

Timothy Price91 Comments

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.

Owls in a cottonwood hooting after sunset. I increased the exposure by three stops to get a little detail in the owl on the left. It’s really hard to see the owl on the right in the first photo.


Sunrise and a crescent moon peeking through the clouds.

Pink clouds make a halo around the Tangle Heart Tree.