Crucified
A hummingbird was hovering above me going through its yoga positions while I was out walking on the levee. The specks in the images are swarms of gnats or little flies that the hummingbird is feeding on.
Backstroke Bob
Treading air
Freefall Freddie
Leftward list
The crawfish
Crucified arch
Backstretch air tread
Front stretch air tread
Flutter me, Freddie
Look, mama! No Wings!
Three Pterodactyls (Great Blue Herons) together. Not a common sight around here.
A coyote sauntering along the levee looks back to check out the paparazzo.
The Neowise comet from 7/20. That was the only clear sky we had last week.
Hummer holding an iron cross over the Rio Grande.
Oh! We’ve been seeing daddy owl, but not mama owl or the owlets.
A cormorant was being silly, sunning himself on a stick in the Rio Grande while watching the kayaks float by.
“Hey, y’all do I look like a dragon, or what?”
Daddy Owl silhouetted at dusk
Last night there was not much of a sunset, but daddy owl flew up on a tree well after sundown so we could see him in silhouette. He stayed on the tree until I was able to walk around where I could get him in profile in the afterglow. An Osprey flew overhead and then a beaver was out basking in the twilight on the east bank of the river.
Daddy Owl in profile at twilight
Osprey overhead
Beaver basking in the twilight
Beaver on the east bank grooming at twilight
One the branch staring me down.
We haven’t seen the little owls for a couple of weeks. When the smoke descended upon us the owls seemed to say “¡Hasta la vista! Babies!” and disappeared. Over the past week, we had heard them eeping, but we couldn’t find them in the trees. Various people mentioned hearing the owlets and seeing them fly into the bosque, but sightings, where the owlets are perched on a branch eeping and watching people, had become scarce.
Last night when I was walking to 4th of July Point at sunset, I heard eeping, and I found this little owl on a branch behind the Tangle Heart Tree. Laurie walked up and we could hear the other owlet eeping deeper in the bosque south of the Tangle Heart Tree, but I couldn’t find it.
Taking a closer look at the pesky paparazzo.
Half-moon in the Tangle Heart Tree
The owlet flew back behind other branches.
¡Hola!
We started our walk on the ditch after sundown last light. As we were walking north on the levee, this Night Heron flew up in the tree along the clearwater ditch. He perched very close to us. Night Herons are usually very timid. Maybe he felt secure in the darkness because he stayed perched on the branch in clear view and turned from one side to the other as I snapped photos of him.
Tiny hummingbird in the tangle heart tree
Chokes on smoke from a distant fire
Purple haze on Sandia’s gray
Pink snuffed out while beaver plays
Owls fall silent have they taken their leave?
A dove coos atop Mia’s tree
Nighthawk flies erratically
Bat cuts through the air
Hangs thick
Night Heron
Little Baby Owl flies over the ditches.
