I spent a little more time with my new lens today. I got out to the river at 7:00 am, 40 minutes before sunrise. The temperature was 5 degrees F when I left, so I didn’t see any critters on my way to the river. However, just as I got the to edge of the water, I saw the silhouette of a large bird flying north to south high above the bosque on the other side of the river. Thinking it was a crane by its size, I started snapping photos, but as it came into profile, I realized it was an eagle, but it was still a small shadow in my viewfinder in the pre-dawn light (even with a 600 mm lens), so I couldn’t tell what kind of eagle it was — I suspected it was a golden eagle. Only after I blew up the image and added enough fill-light in the post processing to get some detail in the bird, I discovered it was a bald eagle. Since the light was low, and the eagle kept its distance, I had to do a lot of post processing to get to the images of the eagle, which are still fuzzy. The first two eagle photos were taken just after 7:00 am, then just before sunrise it made another pass south of where I was photographing herons and cranes, which is the 3rd eagle photo.

While I stood on the west bank of the river photographing the cranes and geese, a couple of herons flew in and landed directly across from me on the other side of the river. I stood in the same spot observing and photographing the herons, cranes, ducks and geese until 8:45 am.  The herons moved little most of the time I was there, but as a couple of cranes walked by, they got a little riled and strutted a bit. The photo of the heron and crane together shows how big the cranes are compared to the herons, which are large birds.

I got the photo of the sparrow about 11:00 am, used beaker as a sharpness test — since he holds still for me — and photographed the lesser goldfinch when I took out the trash around 2:00 pm. The jet was photographed around 4:00 pm. I was surprised how much detail I got in the jet given its altitude; however, since it appears to move slower and is much more reflective in the late afternoon sun than an eagle is in the pre-dawn light, its details came out much better than the eagle’s.

 

Santa gave me a 140-600mm lens. I didn’t have time to really test it today, but here are a few quick photos of a sparrow, the Devil’s Thumb on the Sandias and the towers out in the yard.  The sparrow was taken through the window and was strongly backlit, so I had to pull the contrast way down to get detail in the bird, so the image is a little soft. I’m really happy I was able to get the lens to focus on the bird through the branches. The detail on Devil’s Thumb and Towers is very good for hand held.

 

 

I spent all morning cooking a NM jambalaya for Christmas eve. If we were traditional types we would have posole and tamales, but neither one is our favorite. Beaker is a little more of a traditionalist and had to have a hot tamale on Christmas eve. Lucky for him I bought a package of  3 Alarm Hot Tamales for a stocking stuffer.

We had a grand time writing bad haiku and ROFLing about it this afternoon. I’ve come to the conclusion that haiku doesn’t really work in English. In my quick search for examples of really good haiku in English, I failed to find any.

I installed my new amplified “old guy, super simple” weather station yesterday. The normal weather station on the left is simple, but didn’t quite cut it for easy viewing through the kitchen window. The temp was 11 degrees in this pre-dawn photo.

I got a couple of bouquets of flowers yesterday, which Laurie used to make a very nice arrangement that’s giving me lots of colorful photo ops.

 

One thing nice about going out Christmas shopping late in a snow storm is that there are only a few other shoppers dumb enough to be out late shopping in the snow, as well.  By the time we headed home about 10:00 pm last night, Corrales Road was snow packed and we had two inches of snow at the house. I ventured out late this afternoon, and once I got out of Corrales, I couldn’t tell it had snowed last night.

Parrots are known for their longevity in captivity, but their average lifespan in the wild is around 6 years. They say it’s because of predators, but I think it’s because they don’t get regular breakfasts of cereal, milk and caffelatte, and other staples like green chile enchiladas, carne adovada, chocolate covered coffee beans, toast, cheese, eggs and filet mignon in the wild.

Puck was up to no good, threatening to knock stuff all over the floor if we didn’t let him out. He often knocks the pencil box on the floor, scattering pencils all over when we don’t let him out. What’s even sillier than Puck knocking the stuff on the floor, is that we simply pick up everything and put it back in the same place so he can knock on the floor again.

 

 

When the days are short, the temps are cold, and the weather is on the side of treacherous, you need not even step outside to photograph birds if you live in a zoo, and decorate your tree with feathery facsimiles.

 

Tristan and David had a solstice party tonight, so I photographed some more of their Polish ornaments. The mountains had clouds all over them this morning on my way to work. Laurie asked if I was going 75 when I did the photo, which is was a good guess; however, I have to confess I was only doing 50 when I snagged the photo.

 

 

Winter Rap
Low light, black and white, down right sad.
No sun, no fun, like living in the north land.
So cold, getting old, makes you just wanna fold.
Dry air, no fair, blowing noses everywhere.
All gray is okay for some places far away.
Winter rap for today, I just have no more to say.

From rain and hail in the middle of the night, to big flakes of snow by daylight, to sleet in the afternoon, then back to snow by nightfall is how the latest winter storm passed through Albuquerque. My weather widget says mostly sunny tomorrow.

The Sandias are an interesting study. Depending on the season, time of day, light and weather conditions the Sandias always seem to have a little bit different look about them. The top photo is from yesterday afternoon, the bottom photo is a month old.

 

Here’s to great friends, great fellowship and great happiness this holiday season.