In The Macro Moment

March 14, 2020March 14, 2020 Timothy Price45 Comments

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Flies and bees on our five on one plum tree.

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First Butterfly & Flowers

March 10, 2020March 10, 2020 Timothy Price45 Comments

010O0080 — Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

Mourning Cloaks are consistently the first butterflies to appear in March each year. While they prefer to feed on tree sap, oaks are a favorite, or rotting fruit, they have to make due with sucking nectar from the blossoms of our early blooming plum tree. The Mourning Cloak caterpillars like to feed on a variety of tree leaves including elms and cottonwoods, which we have plenty of. Adults that appear this early in the season have hibernated over the winter.

010O0152 — There’s a tiny spider on the edge of this crocus.

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Firsts, Cats, Close to Lasts

March 7, 2020March 7, 2020 Timothy Price22 Comments

010O0047 — Mama owl sitting on her eggs.

010O0051 — We should start seeing owlets in a couple of months.

010O0053 — The not quite full moon had an interesting color just before sunset.

Cottonwood in the bosque basking in the late afternoon sun.

010O0015 — Maybe the last of the cranes.

Sunset & Flowers

January 10, 2020January 10, 2020 Timothy Price34 Comments

DSCF5175 — Sunset with Resa’s Tree on the left, and Robin’s Tree on the Right.

The photos below are of an arrangement a friend gave us for Epiphany. The flowers offer a bit of color in the dead of winter and the white roses are quite beautiful.

Frosted

December 10, 2019 Timothy Price42 Comments

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Sun Flower Frost

ImageNovember 9, 2019November 9, 2019 Timothy Price36 Comments

A Balloon & Bumble Bees

October 5, 2019October 5, 2019 Timothy Price13 Comments

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The 48th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta started today. Unfortunately, we had heavy rains on Friday, so there was a rare fog covering the valley on Saturday morning. Only a few test balloons got off before they cancelled the launch due to a persistence of fog and low hanging clouds. I went out to the river and came across a group of paddlers waiting for the balloons to launch. There were other groups of paddlers on the river. The clouds cleared by 10:00 am, and the bumble bees were flying around in the cosmos. I decided the bumble bees were a nice stand-in for the balloons.

0A6A3622 — The Canon balloon few over. It was the only balloon I saw.

0A6A3639 — Sun trying to cut through the fog.

0A6A3632 — Paddlers floating down the river.

Porcupine Promenade

September 29, 2019September 29, 2019 Timothy Price24 Comments

We got out late last night for a walk under the stars after putting up our third sack of green chiles, making power bars, and doing various other chores that took up all of our daylight hours. A few hundred feet before the bridge that we use to cross the clearwater ditch, I saw what looked like a weed moving ahead of us. I shined my flashlight on it, and, as I suspected, it was Porky, a very large porcupine, waddling along on its way to cross the bridge ahead of us. I pulled out my phone to see if I could get a video, but by the time I got the phone convinced to take a video in the dark, Porky had crossed the bridged and headed down into the cottonwoods between the clearwater ditch and the irrigation ditch. I managed to get a short, 15 second video of Porky waddling into the undergrowth by a large cottonwood. I assembled and arranged a short piece of music for Porky’s promenade.

The photos below are an assortment of critters and fall colors.