Category: Cottonwoods

Walter And Willa Move South

Timothy Price59 Comments

Sandias at sunset

May’s Flower Moon in the clouds

Osric looking handsome

Willa looked like she had an itch to scratch

Will having a little trouble with her balance

Willa looking lovely

Nora Has dinner

Nora preparing dinner

Nora: “Oops! Looks like I dropped dinner. Sure Enough!” Walter: “I can’t believe you dropped dinner!”

Willa and Walter

Willa doing the Funky Chicken

Walter’s crash landing

Willa, being an Angel

Can you find Osric in the above photo?

Osric Owl

Can you find Willa and Walter in the above photo?

Sunset

Madge The Badge Is A Model

Timothy Price47 Comments

Sandias at sunset

We ran in David, one of our ditch bank buddies, on the way down to check on the owls. We saw him again on our way back, and he mentioned that he saw Madge the Badge and attempted to talk to her, but she slipped into her hole. When we got to Madge’s mound, we said, “Hey, Madge! It’s us. Are you coming out?” She popped her head up immediately, crawled out of her hole, and posed. Laurie asked her if she was a model, and she was like, “Duh! Isn’t it obvious?” She recognized our voices and came out to visit. She’s very intelligent. If you are wondering how I know Madge is a female. I don’t know what her sex is. I’m gendering her as a female because I like the name Madge the Badge.

“You called?”

I thought Madge was talking to us without making noise. But when I processed the photos, I could see she was chewing on something.

A Black Headed Grosbeak (top) and a female Western Tanager (bottom)

Black Headed Grosbeak

Female Western Tanager

Western Bluebird

I’m not sure what Osric Owl had in his talons, but it could be the tail feather of a Cooper’s Hawk.

Nora Owl was on her favorite perch.

Willa looked disgusted that Water was nowhere to be seen.

We hadn’t seen Wile E. in a while.

Snuggle Kitties

Timothy Price39 Comments

Gwendolyn and Loki

Jumping spider

Loki was thinking when Cater Mortis set in. Luckily, he snapped out of it. That was close, Loki!

Iris before and after Laurie whacked back Dr Huey. Dr. Huey was getting out of hand with long canes that were getting blown around and breaking the iris.

Resa looked up American Badgers and discovered they are on the endangered species list. Tristan said that’s because they are dangerous, mean, and grumpy. Craig piped in, “They will eat your face off!” I told them our badger is sweet. She said that the Cheo in the Badger recognized the Cheo in me, so it saw me as another mean and grumpy badger. There are advantages to being a mean and grumpy curmudgeon (Cheo).

We saw the badger again tonight. It listened to us for a few minutes, decided we weren’t a threat, and headed off to the apple orchard to hunt gophers. I photographed it with my phone because I had forgotten to check the batteries on the Bazooka’s camera body. Stupid paparazzo, as the critters like to say.

Close to sunset

Walter Gets His Wings

Timothy Price45 Comments

When we checked on Walter and Willa tonight, all we could see was Willa. She was high in the tree, looking all around, hopping from limb to limb, climbing the trunk of the tree. She wore herself out, and Walter was nowhere to be seen. Willa laid down on the broken branch we first spotted her on, exhausted from her efforts. Then Walter flew in from another tree, all proud of himself. He was hopping and flying around, looking for Nora. They were ready for dinner.

Willa: “Hey, Paparazzo, do you see Walter anywhere?”

Walter flew in from another tree.

Willa: “Mama! I need dinner!”

As we were walking back, the badger made a mad dash from one hole to another hole. We stopped, and it came back out and listened to us for a bit. We were so close to it that I had to take a few steps back to get enough distance to focus on the badger.

Sunset