Critter Fest

Our morning walk started with a beautiful crescent moon peeking through the clouds.

Clouds capped the Sandias.

Lots of cranes huddled together at dawn

The beavers were up early and splashing a warning that there was a dangerous paparazzo with a big yellow dog standing near the edge of the water.

A Bosque Bunny was up early, also.

Sunrise

Kitties: “It’s too early and too cold for you to be pestering us, pesky Paparazzo!”

Don’t you think it’s a little early to be hitting the catnip, Silver?

Spunk: “What are you looking at me for? Jake did it!”

Jake: “I didn’t do it! I swear! I’m telling you the truth. You know Spunk is lying. He’s always trying to get me in trouble.”

It looks like you got caught in the mosquito net again, Jake.

Sunset

The morning clouds left a dusting of snow on the crest.

Daddy Owl @ dusk

White Duck Daze

Some one’s white duck was in the irrigation ditch tonight.

I spotted a Beaver on the other side of the river.

He slithered into the water.

Swam toward me like Jaws.

He made a right turn,

Then a left turn.

Then Splashed me after I was yelling at him to splash for quite some time.

Daddy Owl

Is there a dragon in the clouds?

The Sandias with a soft pink.

Beaver Grooming

A beaver has been sitting like a bear on the riverbank across from Beaver Point grooming itself in the evenings after sunset. I took the video above last night. During the first part of the video the beaver was about 300 feet south of where I was standing, so when I zoomed in with the video processing software, there’s a soft focus on the beaver. I walked down through the brush and got almost directly across from the beaver, so the video has better focus for the last part. After moving across from the beaver it noticed me, got into the river, and slapped its tail against the water a couple of times. The tail slaps are a little week because when the beaver pauses to splash, the current interrupts the power of the splash. Tail slaps are much loader and more forceful in calmer water. The audio is of the river rushing by, traffic from I-25 to the east, and jets flying overhead.

The photos below were from the June 1st. The beaver was about 200 feet north of me, but it was later, and much darker. I was not able to get the camera to focus for video that night, but I was able to enhance the stills so they are bright with fairly good detail.

0A6A7138
Grooming its tail

0A6A7143
Scratching its belling

0A6A7155
Leaning forward to scratch a bit lower

0A6A7156
Grooming its face