A dusting of snow on the Sandias
Following in someone’s footsteps
Snow on trees. Towers in the clouds.
Southwestern sky
Not so lonely dove
Snow is forecast
Owls were well hidden tonight
The moon is starting to get full of itself
Category: Sandhill Cranes
Spunk Approves
Murder over the bosque
Lavinia asked if I had used a telescope to photograph the moon last night. Lavinia never lets me down on being observant and asking questions when something seems different like a whole lot of detail in the moon photo. As I answered her, I did not use a telescope, I used a 400mm lens that is equivalent to a 640mm lens on my Canon 7D Mark II body. I have been considering getting a long telephoto lens for quite some time.
I was originally looking at the Canon 100-400mm lens, which is one of Canon’s best telephoto zoom lenses for mere mortal photographers, such as myself. However, the 100-400mm lens is ƒ/4.5 to ƒ/5.6, which is a little slow for as much low light photography as I do. I really needed a faster telephoto lens. I seriously considered both the Canon 400mm ƒ/2.8 and the Canon 300mm ƒ/2.8 lenses. The problem with those lenses for me is their weight. The Canon 400mm ƒ/2.8 weighs in at 12 pounds, and the 300mm ƒ/2.8 weighs 6 pounds, 1/2 the weight of the 400mm ƒ/2.8, but still a heavy lens.
I ended up compromising on speed for lighter weight and bought a 400mm ƒ/4.0 DO lens with Refractive Optics, which enables Canon to put a 400mm ƒ/4.0 lens in the same body as the 300mm ƒ/2.8 lens, shaving 2 pounds off the weight in the process. At 4 pounds, the 400mm ƒ/4.0 DO is easy to handle, and fast enough to get decent images hand held in low light. In the photos of the owls below, we could only see outlines of the owls with our bare eyes like in the first photo, but not nearly as close up. The new lens is able to focus on the owls in relative darkness, through the branches and get an amazing amount of detail.
Spunk loves my new lens
Preening
Spunk’s a lens hugger
Intermission photographed using a Fuji XE-1 with 27mm ƒ/2.8 lens
“Who are you calling a ‘lens hugger?’ Stupid Paparazzo!”
RAW image of the owls before I cropped the image and adjusted the exposure, contrast, color balance, etc.
“Oh my! The paparazzo found us again.”
Mirroring
The streak photographed using a Canon 5Ds with a Canon 70-200mm ƒ/4.0 lens
A little over half a moon on 01/21/21
The Pterodactyl On The Tangle Heart Tree
On the 29th day of January, the Owls said to me: “Look! There’s a Pterodactyl on the Tangle Heart Tree.” I turned around and sure enough, the Pterodactyl was perched on the Tangle Heart Tree.
The Pterodactyl flew off into the sunset.
I checked out the cranes grazing on the east bank of the Rio Grande.
After the clouds cleared the half-moon hung in the sky.
Yesterday’s Birds
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
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.
Landings
“How do you like my impersonation of a Crane?” Oh, Spunk! I think you look more like Chupacabra. “What do you know stupid Paparazzo?”
“We think Spunk looks a lot like a Crane.” Who asked you Daddy and Mama Owls?
Sandhill Cranes landing at sunset. Another colorful sunset. The sliver moon was just above the trees after sunset.
Afterglow
“It looks like the wind is blowing in a nice afterglow tonight.” Wise words Daddy Owl.
Crows on the crow highway.
Ducks basking in the afterglow.
Cranes, ducks, and geese enjoying the glow.
More crows heading south.
Sandias catching the afterglow long after sundown.
Clouds from the bosque view.
Moon Eyes Venus
Mama Owl. January 11, 2021
Sandhill Crane. January 11, 2021.
Frosty Morning
Frosted backlit leaves.
We had a light dusting of snow combined with frost this morning. The sky cleared in the early morning hours and the temperature dropped to 20ºF (-6.66ºC).
Cranes and geese in a frosty mist.
Frosted links.
Marina’s Incognito Pear tree all cold and frosty.
Snow and frost on the black bamboo.
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?
Off Center & Not Even 