Wild Summer Skies

Timothy Price57 Comments

Looking southeast from South Bend

When I was out at Beaver Point just before sunset last night, I could see the clouds were really wild looking to the southeast, and I would get much better photos from the south bend about a quarter-mile downriver. I hightailed it south and along the way heard the owlets peeping in the cottonwoods between 4th of July Point and South Bend, but I could not see them. I got down to South Bend in time for some spectacularly wild clouds with the half-moon hanging behind them. On my way backed I looked for the owlets, but could not find them in the trees. There was still a lot of color in the clouds when I got to the Tangle Heart Tree, but the color had pretty much subsided to the east when I got to Shehanne’s tree on my way back home.

Looking east over the Rio Grande a the Sandias from South Bend.

A half-moon peaking through the Tangle-Heart Tree.

The last of the color looking north from the Tangle Heart Tree. Can you see a face in the clouds?

Shehanne’s Tree in front of a fading eastern sky.

 

Cottonwoods Among The Jetties

Timothy Price18 Comments

The Jetties, also called Jetti Jacks, where placed along the river in the 1930s where the bosque has since grown up. The jettise are one of many flood control projects that have been installed along the Rio Grande. When I was young, there were rows of jettis the ran from the Levee to the river about every 1000 feet or so. Most of the jetties have been removed over the past 30 years, but there are some that have been left tangled up in cottonwoods that grew up along the line of jetties.

Bothered Bumblebee

Timothy Price45 Comments

The buzz off

“Hey, there boy. You’re bothering me.” This poor bumblebee was trying to feed on the echinacea when other bees kept pestering it and T-boning it. I was not able to capture a T-bone, but you can see how the bumble is knocked “off-center” and ends up “not even” right after being slammed into by other flying insects.

Incoming

After the flyby T-bone

Knocked off-center & not even

The bumblebee was determined to feed.

After another whack

Incoming again

Treading air

Western Skies with Neowise

Timothy Price64 Comments

Tristan texted Laurie last night that she could see Neowise in the western sky. We went out to look, but we could not see it. I got the binoculars, and Laurie finally found it. It showed up very well in the binoculars. Tristan said it was directly below the bottom star in the big dipper. The comet makes up the apex on an equilateral triangle with two stars from Ursula Major, I believe. You can read more about how to see Neowise at https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-see-comet-neowise/

I dragged out a tripod, got focused on the Big Dipper, turned off autofocus, pointed my leans in the general direction of the comet, and check shots until I saw it on the screen. There were clouds in the eastern skies that were reflecting the city’s light making it so we could not see the comet with our naked eyes. After we found where the comet was, focusing on it was a real challenge. I can’t simply set the lens on infinity and shoot like I could with the old manual focus lenses. These photos give you a decent idea of what it looked like.