Gray Matters

I walked out to the river at dusk to see if I could get the moonrise. Only gray clouds from the approaching storm.

Demons and dragons closing in on Resa’s tree.

I woke up a 3:30 am, walked outside, and shot the moon as it slipped through the clouds before disappearing behind the trees.

A tree held onto the moon after it slipped through the clouds.

Mars, Jupiter, and Venus at 3:48 am.

Stinking

I was in the infinite shed of doom measuring and taking inventory of material for a project I’m working on. When I moved some wood, a darling baby skunk ran between my legs and took refuge under another infinite pile of doom before I could get a photo of it. When I pulled a door open that acts as a wall to a caged-in area in the shed, I was face to face with Mama Skunk. She lunged at me a few times when I stuck my phone in her face, but then she finally sat back and listened to me talk to her. She never acted like she was going to spray me. It’s possible that since I only take a shower a couple of times a week to save water, and since I was dirty, sweaty, and all dressing in black, she might have thought I was a big, stinky Nephilim paparazzo, who obviously could not be a threat the way I smelled.

Mama Skunk sitting back and listening to me talk to her.

Bird Jokes

Between rains

“Did you hear about the Cormorant who was picking at beak boogers with a claw on his foot? He ‘clawboogered’ himself!”

“Bahahahahaha!”

“Wait a minute. That’s not funny!”

“Okay already! Quit looking at me like that. It was just a stupid joke!”

See no fishies. Hear no fishies. Eat no fishies.

Dancing With The Stars

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

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

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.