Mama Owl. January 11, 2021
Sandhill Crane. January 11, 2021.
Category: Great Horned owls
My New Ax
Surprise! I’ll bet you thought my new Ax was going to be a new guitar? As you can see below it’s a real Ax for chopping down trees. Laurie asked me why I got a chopping ax instead of a splitting ax? It’s pretty simple: like a Lumberjack, I chop down trees.
My new ax is made by Husqvarna, and it’s a solid, heavy-duty ax.
Mama Owl and Daddy Owl are still hanging in the tree across the irrigation ditch from where they have nested for the past four years.
Like a Lumberjack, I felled two elm trees in a matter of minutes with my new ax.
Crane looking for a morsel before going to bed.
Remember Monty Python’s The Lumberjack Song?
Kittens, Cranes, Kitties, Crows
Gwendolyn gargoyling
Glenda and Gwendolyn have full run of the house, catio, and deck now. Teagan had cast them as flying monkeys in a kitty fantasy, and she was right. The kittens are like a couple of flying monkeys. They have become very difficult to photograph because they won’t hold still if they are out of the dark kitten caves they have made for themselves in the laundry room. The big kitties have finally accepted the kittens and everyone is getting along reasonably well. The big kitties have become much more playful under the influence of the kittens. Of course, the big cats are also teaching the kittens many of their bad habits.
Cranes coming in for landing with crows in the background.
Marble
Gwendolyn
We’re just dropping in the see what condition all the conditions are in.
Spunk in the fuzzy hammock I replaced the last burlap hammock with.
The murder of Crows continues.
“You didn’t include me in the title?” Nope! You’re the intermission.
Cranes cavorting
Glenda in the dark.
Cranes at sunset
Gwendolyn: “What cream?”
Glenda
Gwendolyn: “La Llorona? What were you saying about La Llorona drowning kittens?” Children. She drowns children.
Glenda: “Kittens are children too!”
EEK!
“EEK! A mouse!” “Nice jump Dude!”
“That was close.”
“I’m not impressed.”
Intermission
“Did someone say ‘Mouse’?”
“Meh!”
“False Alarm!”
The excitement in the Rio Grande and bosque this evening. Cranes and owls. Spunk and Sasha had to comment.
Peppered Sky, Jets Fly By, Cranes Land, Owls
Crows peppered the sky
Jets few by
Cranes fly by
Landing gears down
Mama Owl & Daddy Owl
Jupiter & Saturn
Lovers in Lace
Mama Owl and Daddy Owl in a lacy cottonwood tree. January 3, 2021.
Lovers in Lace
Lyrics & Music by Timothy Price
Guitars, Bass, and Percussion: Timothy Price
Lovers in Lace is another new, original song that is very different from Memories that I posted yesterday. Imagine yourself in the low light of a smokey bar gazing into your lover’s eyes with Lovers in Lace playing in the background.
Jupiter peeping through a tree. Saturn is barely peeking through where the lower branches meet the lacy edge of the Elm trees. January 3, 2021.
Spunk
Crows, Moon, Mia’s Tree, Tangle Heart Tree
Crows over cranes at dusk.
Crows, crane, Sliver Moon over Mia’s Tree.
Intermission: Daddy owl hooted at me in the dark and got my attention. +2 stops made for an interesting exposure.
Crows and Sliver Moon.
An alignment of Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity, a plane, and the Sliver Moon under the Tangle Heart Tree. Saturn is trying to shine through the clouds above Jupiter.
October Owls
Daddy Owl was in the bosque.
The owls were out hooting back and forth to each other at twilight.
He flew onto the trunk of a cottonwood before flying over to cottonwoods by the clearwater ditch
Mama Owl was on the tip-top of Mia’s Tree.
Getting a good hoot in. I pushed this photo 2 stops to get a little bit of detail.
Otherwise, Mama Owl was a silhouette.
Cranes and Canadian Geese flew by Mama Owl on their way to roost.
Coyote, Comet, Iron Cross
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.
Critter Update
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
Off Center & Not Even 