Hello World!

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We went out to check on the owls yesterday morning, and one of at least two, but I’m guessing there are three, owlets popped his head up and said “Hello World!” Thus we start another season of “Watching the Owlets Grow.”

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Sunset View

Mr. & Mrs. Owl

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Mr. & Mrs. Owl sitting in a cottonwood across from their nest.

We walked down to check on the mama owl who’s been sitting in her nest for a little over a month. She and the daddy owl where sitting in a cottonwood across the irrigation ditch from their nest. Mr. Owl would hoot at Mrs. Owl and then she would peep. After he flew, I walked around to the other side of Mrs. Owl, and I could see she had something in the talons of her her left foot, but I could not make out what it was. She finally flew over to the nest and then we could see she had a gopher for her little ones. I expect we’ll start seeing the owlets poking their fuzzy heads up over the edge of the nest to look out at all the people standing on the ditch bank gawking at them in a couple of weeks.

Below is a short video of Mr. Owl hooting at Mrs. with wind and a pesky chainsaw in the background.

 

You can click on the photos in the group below to see each image enlarged:

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Mrs. Owl in the nest with her ear tufts blowing in the wind.

Firsts, Cats, Close to Lasts

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First bloom purple crocus.
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First bloom yellow crocus.
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Mama owl sitting on her eggs.
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We should start seeing owlets in a couple of months.
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The not quite full moon had an interesting color just before sunset.
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Marble being silly.
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Spunk being handsome.
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Sasha being beautiful.
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Cottonwood in the bosque basking in the late afternoon sun.
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Maybe the last of the cranes.
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¡Hasta la vista!

Trees at Sunset

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Holly’s Tangle-Heart Tree
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Cool clouds over the levee and bosque.
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Susan’s Tree, Teagan’s Trees, Robin’s Tree, and the unclaimed Tree. There’s an owl in Teagan’s Tree.
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Teagan’s Tree with an owl perched in it.

Below is a closer shot of the owl in Teagan’s Tree. The owl flying over us as we walked towards it on the ditch bank. The owl landed in a tree behind me along the ditch bank. Two closeups of the owl.

Two Owls, A Pterodactyl in the Tangle-Heart Tree

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Pterodactyl (Great Blue Heron) perched on the Tangle-Heart Tree.

While I was out in the bosque at sunset, I saw two owls in a cottonwood, and a pterodactyl (Great Blue Heron) in the Tangle-Heart Tree. I also photographed cranes against a colored sky, and two ducks in the dark.

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Great Horned Owl in a cottonwood.
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Pterodactyl flying, framed by the end of the Tangle-Heart tree.
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Cranes against the colored sky.
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Great Horned Owl on a branch above the first owl.
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Male Mallard. Mr. Duck in the dark.
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Female Mallard. Mrs. Duck in the dark.

Owl at Dusk

This short video is of a Great Horned Owl I saw in the tip top of Mia’s tree when we walking in the bosque at dusk last night. The video is made from “Live” photos I took of the owl with my iPhone.  If you are not familiar with Live photos, the phone takes a 2 to 3 second video in the process of taking the still photo.  I added a short piece of music I assembled from other songs I recorded a few months. The owl may have been one of the owls in the photos below.

Virginia & Two Coyotes

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I went for a walk in the bosque at sunset, and caught the pink on the Sandias — there was not a cloud in the sky. I headed north after sunset and ran into two coyotes on the trail. They perked up when they saw me, then high-tailed it in the opposite direction. Then I saw Virginia perched on a branch. It was nice to see Virginia, I hadn’t seen her in months.