Category: Plants

Lots To Look At

Timothy Price55 Comments

Bazooka’s fist Dragonfly

Major Tom Peepers, Sleepy and Mona Lisa.

Finch

We finally got Laurie’s new MacBook Air M1 so I could have my MacBook Pro that I use for recording back. The first thing I did after I got Laurie’s new M1 set up yesterday was to go into the studio and re-record the lead guitar parts and cleaned up some parts with the bass and rhythm guitar where I was out of compás in Wood Duck Daze. Then I put the new track with the video. I think there are still one or to rough spots, but overall it’s much improved and the lead guitars are really wild like those crazy Wood Ducks.

Tabatha Towhee gave us her rendition of Habanera from Carmen by Bizet.

Bravo! Bravo! Tabatha Towhee.

On the flip side.

Well done Tabatha.

Major Tom Peepers and Mona Lisa.

Lizards looking for love. The male, above, was chasing the female, below. He was doing a bobbing lizard dance for her.

Larry Lizard

Lorena Lizard

All three owlets snoozing.

Altisimo in profile.

America

Mama Owl

Lady Banks in her massive Glory.

Honeysuckle

Mona Lisa and Major Tom Peepers. Sleepy is, you guessed it, sleeping.

Lilac

A pearlet on Marina’s Incognito Pear Tree.

Mona Lisa and Major Tom Peepers posing.

“Hey Mona. I think we need to get that stupid Paparazzo to build us a shade structure.”

Two Firsts and a Wet Skunk

Timothy Price56 Comments

I got water for my first irrigation tonight. It’s so dry the land soaks up the water for a long time before it keeps flowing. Furthermore, the water level in the acequia madre keeps fluctuating, which changes the water pressure. Between bone dry land and changing water pressure, it’s going to take a long time to get everything watered tonight. I may not get everything watered tonight.

That little fuzzy head in the darkness is Mama Owl’s and Daddy Owl’s new owlet sticking its head up for the first time to say “Hello world!” I was talking to Jim between calling the owlet and taking photos, and Jim asked “Why don’t they stick their heads up when it’s light?” I told him that owls like darkness.

Mama Owl and Daddy Owl in a cottonwood in the bosque looking for Junior’s dinner.

If anyone has suggestions for names for Junior, I’m open.

“¡Hola Mundo!”

The left fork in the Y in my irrigation ditch flows through a culvert where Scrappy Skunk was sleeping. Poor Scrappy was rudely awakened by the water and he came out one end of the pipe but got offended that I was videotaping him. He crawled back in the culvert, came out the other side, went back in, and stayed in the culvert until the water got too high and finally forced him out. He was an embarrassed wet skunk when he finally climbed out of the ditch and ran off. You can watch Scrappy Skunk in all his wet glory in the video below.

Tonight’s flowers, bunny and moon follow.

Beatrice Bunny

Spring Walk

Timothy Price55 Comments

After spending five hours dismantling desks, tables, and chairs and moving them to our new office building, I went on a walk to check on Nora Owl. On the way, I saw sparrows, a muskrat, an echelon of cranes, a cinnamon duck. No owlets popped their heads, up and Nora Owl gave me “mad dogs” when I called to see if any owlets were around. One good sign that the owlets might have hatched is Osric Owl was watching over Nora Owl from a nearby cottonwood. On the way back I saw a Flicker, a squadron of crazy Cormorants, a bluebird of some type, and another sparrow feeding on buds in Marina’s pear tree. The clouds were beautiful in the low sunlight about 30 minutes before sunset.

Muskrat nibbling on grass near its den.

Muskrat swimming with its mouth full of grass.

Nora Owl giving me “mad dogs”.

Osric Owl on his lookout branch.

Cinnamon Duck.

Sandhill Cranes still hanging around.

Intermission: My desk we moved from the office downtown to the new office. I build the desk in 1990. That is a light table on the left-hand side I used for sorting slides and transparencies before digital cameras. The desk on the floor is Dede’s desk that she designed and I built for her in 2007, I believe. it will go in the corner to the right of my desk. I will build Bruce’s desk in the corner to the left of my desk.

Flicker

A squadron of crazy Cormorants.

A hover dove.

Barney Bluebird

Jack Sparrow

Clouds over the Sandias.

Burros, Bees & Bovine

Timothy Price59 Comments

I was photographing bees in the freshly bloomed plum tree. When I went out to check on Daddy Owl, I got sidetracked by burros and bovine. Since I was doing macro-like shots of the bees, I decided “Moo Macros” were in order for the cows.

Honey bee loaded down with pollen.

Moo Macro in B&W

This burro found a tasty cottonwood branch.

A blue native bee.

Tongue to the right.

Tongue to the left.

Tuck tongue nostril right.

Tuck tongue nostril left.

That’s how you do the Bovine Tongue Tuck Tango.

Bovine doing an imitation of a lion.

Another native bee.

Bovine dog imitation.

Daddy Owl was looking out at the Sandias, but gave me a quick, “You’re bothering me, boy!” look.

Who can resist this cute mug?

Yesterday’s Birds

Timothy Price43 Comments

Moon in Tangle Heart Tree at sunset

We have cloud cover tonight with snow predicted by early morning. Therefore, I’m posting the birds I photographed yesterday.

Flicker at the tiptop of Susan’s Tree at dawn.

Actually, there were two flickers at the tiptop of Susan’s Tree at dawn.

The other flicker.

Owls’ Backs

The Canadian Geese complained that I have not been giving them enough attention.

The Pter in a tangle.

Downy Woodpecker

Grazing

Cooper’s Hawk in the top of a cottonwood between the clearwater ditch and the irrigation ditch.

 

Crane Dance

Timothy Price44 Comments

Sunset on the Sandias with cranes in the foreground from Southbend.

Just after sunrise one of the cranes made quite a show of dancing for another crane. There are 21 photos in the sequence with three intermissions. At the end of the post, I included an animated GIF that shows the crane dance in motion.

Quarter moon at sunset.

Daddy Owl slept through the show.

My New Ax

Timothy Price73 Comments

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?

Lovers in Lace

Timothy Price57 Comments

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