When we had Jake out at the beach on Father’s Day, there were a lot of tiny toads playing on the beach as well.
Click on the above gallery to enlarge the tiny toads.
Threatening clouds blew in to cover the moon and turn the sunset gray.
Tiny Toads
Category: Bosque
Thirty-Nine Wild Skies
Thirty-nine wild skies. One for each year Laurie and I have been married. Be sure to click on the gallery to view a slide show of the photos.
All of the clouds to the north at sunset tonight were contrails.
The owlets were lined up tonight in their order of age. Major Tom Peepers on the highest branch in front. Mona Lisa in the middle, and Sleepy mostly hidden farthest back.
Super Flower Blood Moon
3:00 am 
3:30 am 
4:00 am 
4:30 am 
All of the blood moon photos were shot between 4:30 am and 5:04 am. I changed my exposure allowing the non-eclipsed portion of the moon to washout. When there is no cloud cover it easier to keep the non-eclipsed portions of the moon from washing out. The bright parts of the moon cast a glow off of the thin cloud cover that turned into heavier clouds as the moon sank toward the horizon. After the moon slipped behind the tree I walked up the road to where I could barely see the white sliver of the moon through the haze. After that it disappeared. The full eclipse was at 5:18 am, but it had slipped behind the clouds and out of sight.
More flowers and roses for the Super Flower Blood Moon.
All three owlets have flown into the bosque. They are near the Tangle Heart Tree. Can you find them in the above photo? I’m not sure you can see Mona Lisa from the photo. I believe she is blocked by a branch. This is a higher resolution image than I normally upload, so you can click on it to see the full image and enlarge the image to help find the owlets.
A super-wide view of the area the owlets are in with the Tangle Heart Tree on the right.
Contrails when I got home.
Wild sky of the Sandias and Rio Grande.
More wild skies. The last shot was sunset tonight.
Pre-Bloody Super Flower Moon Rise
The Flowers: Mutant Peace, Peonies and Rio Samba.
The western clouds were beautiful, but not promising for a clear sky in the wee hours of the morning when the Super Flower Moon gets bloody. I’ll get up a 3:00am and check the sky.
The Super Flower Moon Rise.
Super Flower Moon
Super-wide-angle view of the Super Flower Moon rising over the Sandias and Rio Grande.
Super Flower Moon in the clouds.
Can you find Venus?
You should be able to see Venus in the above photo.
There was nice color in the west, but I missed most of it photographing the moon.
¡Un Dos Tres¡ Pink Moon… NOT! Again!
One Owlet. Major Tom Peepers.
Two Owlets. Mona Lisa and Major Tom Peepers
Three Owlets. Mona Lisa, Major Tom Peepers and ????
How about Sleepy for the third Owlet?
Actually Major Tom Peepers ran out of steam, also.
Sweet dreams Major Tom Peepers.
Mona Lisa and Major Tom Peepers thought it was a little bright out as you can see them squinting in the next two photos.
Another year. Another no show for the Pink Moon. Marina had clicked on my Pink Moon post from last year and reminded me that tonight is April’s full moon (maybe April’s fool moon) known as the Pink Moon.
Cloud cover thwarted me again. The Pink Moon would have risen near the towers.
The extent of the pink southeast of the Sandias.
We got a slight big of clearing to the west.
Moon Rise Over Sandias
Fuzzette
Under crystal clear, blue skies I made a very interesting discovery.
Fuzzette, Fuzzy, and Nora Owl
Fuzzy has a big sister, Fuzzette, who Nora Owl finally allowed to come out into the world so we can admire her beauty and cuteness.
Ducks in a row.
Fuzzette
Sucker
Fuzzy
Fish
Osric Owl napping in his outpost about 200 feet from Fuzzette, Fuzzy, and Nora Owl.
Bucky Bullfrog
Fuzzette
Marina’s Incognito Pear Tree looking rather pear-shaped.
Nora Owl napping with her ear tufts blowing in the wind.
And you thought Unicorns were equestrians!
Fuzzette is rather intense.
Tulip tortured by the heat and sun.
Fuzzy wide-eyed and presumably bushy tailed.
Lady Banks
Fuzzette has expressive eyes.
Tulip with a slight blush of pink.
Osric Owl doing ear tuft semaphore.
A sunny bunny.
¡Adios muchachos, muchachas!
Minimalist Skies
Jupiter above the moon at 6:15 am this morning.
Daddy Owl blowing in the sunset.
Crows play in pink.
Sparse clouds over the Sandias.
Mama Owl is still “tufting” it out.
Washboard clouds
Minimal clouds to the west.
A Long Talk With Nora, and Tea Toast & Trivia
Nora Owl deciding what to think about the chatty paparazzo.
After I got home from work, I left the laundry for tomorrow, gathered up all the energy I could, and walked the mile north to check on Nora. I ran into Leslie who was also checking on Nora. Leslie said Nora was hunkered down in her nest so she could hardly see her. When I got Nora’s tree she was pretty hunkered down in the light of the setting sun. I started talking to her and asking her if she had any owlets yet. After about ten minutes she started responding and sat up a little. Then she sat up more and look different directions. Her breast feathers looked pushed up as if she had something under them. At one point she tilted her head back and pushed her chest out, but I couldn’t really see any owlets yet. After 30 minutes of pestering poor Nora Owl with my pesky paparazzo chattiness, I left so she could sit in peace. I think the owlets have hatched, but they are still too small to poke their heads out. I think Nora Owl made her best attempt to show them to me. Osric Owl started hooting behind me. When I found him he gave me “mad dogs”.
Rebecca at Tea Toast & Trivia interviewed me on the subject of Blogging, Photography, and Connecting. You can listen to my attempts to impart words of wisdom about blogging, photography, and connecting at https://wp.me/paMWWK-Cs. I really had a great time with the interview. Rebecca and Don, who does the recording, are two of the loveliest people I have ever met.
Still giving me steal eyes while starting to sit up more.
I think this was Nora’s best attempt to expose the owlets.
Osric Owl giving me “mad dogs”.
The pTerodactyl watching the sunset.
It was quite a sunset the pTer was watching.
Spring Walk
After spending five hours dismantling desks, tables, and chairs and moving them to our new office building, I went on a walk to check on Nora Owl. On the way, I saw sparrows, a muskrat, an echelon of cranes, a cinnamon duck. No owlets popped their heads, up and Nora Owl gave me “mad dogs” when I called to see if any owlets were around. One good sign that the owlets might have hatched is Osric Owl was watching over Nora Owl from a nearby cottonwood. On the way back I saw a Flicker, a squadron of crazy Cormorants, a bluebird of some type, and another sparrow feeding on buds in Marina’s pear tree. The clouds were beautiful in the low sunlight about 30 minutes before sunset.
Muskrat nibbling on grass near its den.
Muskrat swimming with its mouth full of grass.
Nora Owl giving me “mad dogs”.
Osric Owl on his lookout branch.
Cinnamon Duck.
Sandhill Cranes still hanging around.
Intermission: My desk we moved from the office downtown to the new office. I build the desk in 1990. That is a light table on the left-hand side I used for sorting slides and transparencies before digital cameras. The desk on the floor is Dede’s desk that she designed and I built for her in 2007, I believe. it will go in the corner to the right of my desk. I will build Bruce’s desk in the corner to the left of my desk.
Flicker
A squadron of crazy Cormorants.
A hover dove.
Barney Bluebird
Jack Sparrow
Clouds over the Sandias.
Off Center & Not Even 