Dancing With The Stars

May 31, 2022 Timothy Price43 Comments

Out at 4:00 am dancing with the stars and planets and La Llorona and Chupacraba

Since I got home late tonight, I didn’t do any redneck roofing. Instead, I went out to check on the owls. We had not seen any sign of the owls for the past 3 days. I think part of it was the fire department was running their super noisy airboat up and down the river all weekend watching for fires in the bosque. On Thursday, 30 acres of bosque burned south of Montaño Blvd., about 8 miles south of us. All was quiet tonight. The first bird I encountered looked like a juvenile Western Blue Bird. Then Daddy Owl came swooping through the property and landed on Susan’s tree. I thought he was going to get a squirrel squirreling around up ahead of me, but he didn’t go for it. But then our bunny came running out and he showed interest in the bunny. Laurie bravely stood between Daddy Owl and the bunny as we told Daddy Owl to leave our bunny be. We told him he can get all the squirrels and gophers he wants, but we draw the line when it comes to our bunny.

As we were heading to where the owlets hang out, a Cooper’s Hawk buzzed us and landed on a nearby tree for a few seconds. When I got up to the Tangle Heart Tree, Mama owl was just taking off to go shopping. The owlets were there peeping like crazy wanting Mama and Daddy to bring them food. A few minutes later Mama Owl returned and gave Mary whatever she caught. When I looked at what Mary had in her beak in the photo, it looks like a cicada, but I can’t say for sure. Mama, flew back to Wowlmart, as Shey calls it, but it was getting dark, so we didn’t stick around to see if she or Daddy Owl came back with anything interesting.

Mars and Jupiter

Western Bluebird

Daddy Owl on Susan’s tree eyeing our bunny. He gave up after we told him no.

Cooper’s Hawk

Mama Owl flying off to Wowlmart.

Smokey sunset.

Sliver moon

Together

May 23, 2022 Timothy Price73 Comments

How many owls can you find in the above photo?

Mama Owl in the Tangle Heart Tree.

Peter, Paul, and Mary together again in the bosque eleven days after Peter flew the coop.

Peter, Paul, and Mary

There was a 50% chance of rain, but any rain evaporated long before it reached the ground. The wind blew a lot of dust, however.

Snowy

May 22, 2022 Timothy Price55 Comments

A Snowy Egret flew by at high speed this morning.

Violet-green Swallows were swarming over the river catching insects. They were also flying close to the water splashing in it as they skimmed the surface. I was not able to get still shots of them splashing.

Mary flew over to the tree with Paul last night. She was really proud of herself this morning perched in the shade with her chest up and out like “See what I did?”

Paul and Mary. Daddy Owl was sitting in a cottonwood in the bosque where he could see both of them in their new tree between the ditches. It will be interesting to see how long it is before they fly into the bosque.

La Familia & A Bloody Super May Flower Moon

May 15, 2022May 15, 2022 Timothy Price53 Comments

The sandias, Rio Grande and clouds at sunset.

Mama Owl and Peter at 7:30 am this morning.

When I first walked up to the tree where I could see Mama Owl and Peter, Mama Owl looked like she was chewing on her paw. Then she started nuzzling Peter. I could not tell if she was trying to feed him something or groom him. She finally noticed the clicks of my shutter and looked back with a look of “Who’s that clickity clacking a camera behind my back?” She had a squint like Clint, with her ear tufts back, and looked rather mean and bothered. I said, “It is only I the lowly paparazzo!” She seemed to recognize me and put her ear tufts up giving me a little happier look.

Mary stretched her wing trying to wake up. Daddy was getting a little shuteye. Mary couldn’t get up so Paul decided to snooze as well.

Mary finally woke up enough to peek out over the edge of the nest and say hello.

Mama Owl giving a hoot at sunset.

Mary and Paul made flew to the big trunk on the tree.

Mary on the side of the truck above Paul in the crotch of the tree.

May Flower Moon Rising through the clouds.

As the old adage of Murphy’s law states: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” While we have had clear night skies for weeks out here, the night we the super bloody May flower moon rise, and go through a bloody eclipse, clouds blow in. I really can’t complain, I got the full eclipse and bloody moon, but then I felt a warm wind on my shoulder and clouds blew in a covered the moon. Therefore, I did not get the second half of the eclipse. However, the clouds added some interest before the covered up the moon completely. At least the clouds could do is rain on us, but so far only a lot of hot wind.

I started photographing the moon at the river, but once it was in the clouds, I photographed the rest of what I was able to get of the eclipse from our property.