Beaker was ringing his bell this morning for some of Laurie’s coffee. He drank the morning brew, closed his eyes, savored the flavor, then went of to his water dish and took a bath.
Tag: birds
Bird Help
René will unexpectedly get spooked by everyday things that I wouldn’t expect would freak him out, so when I started scanning sections of the Icelandic Sagas for the Old Norse class Laurie is taking, I expected René would freak out and fly over to the couch. To my surprise, he was fascinated by the scanner. He would look at me expectantly for my approval to check it out, then he looked to see where the noise was coming from, and finally he would stick his head under the lid while I was holding the page flat during the scans to get a closer look. He was very entertained by the whole process of scanning sections of Viking age sagas, and made a game out of it.
The Animals
As I mentioned yesterday, the Blacksmith Wold Championships was held at the Wildlife West Nature Park and Rescued Wildlife Zoo east of Albuquerque. Today’s photos are of some of the rescued animals they have at the park. These animals have been hit by cars, caught in traps or injured in some way that makes it difficult or impossible for the animal to survive in the wild. Of course, in the rescue zoo, they are well fed and cared for, so all the animals are fat and healthy.
In photographing zoo animals, especially birds, there’s the issue of the wire on their enclosures. When I can, I put my lens up against the wire to reduce the wire’s visibility, so I end up with varying degrees of soft focus, streaks or the visible wire. The challenge is making the wires and habitats work in the composition, and as part of the effects of the photos. I don’t remember the names of all the birds, but the animals (in order) are coyote, raven, bobcat, hawk of some type, coyote with humans, great horned owl, mountain lion, golden eagle, raccoon, vulture, Mexican wolf, roadrunner, gray fox, hawk or falcon of some type, and a peregrine falcon.
Family Breakfast on the Deck
With fall comes green chiles and there’s nothing like a leisurely breakfast with Guildenstern and René (Laurie doing the photo and the other cats on the table or chairs). We had huevos rancheros made with freshly peeled green chiles from Wagner’s Farm.
You Did What?
I deleted myself from Facebook using the website justdelete.me which actually deletes all your data from selected websites if possible. Justdelete.me rates each website from easy to impossible on it’s ability to delete your data from the site. René and Mama Manx were surprised I did it. While people complain about Facebook’s new user agreement, as long as they stay on Facebook Zuckerberg wins and gets the free use of their photos and personal data for advertising and whatever they want. But if all the people who are mad about the new user agreement dumped Facebook, then it might force Zuckerberg to change policies or Facebook to fade away into oblivion.
Hummmmmm
A hummingbird was foraging on one of our butterfly bushes in the late afternoon light.
Distracted by Hawks
These two hawks were hunting from one of the trees on Meadowlark Lane on the way home, which provided quite a distraction for me.
Bird, Bee, Flower and Clouds
We watched the final stage of the Tour de France, and the multi-media, light extravaganza they projected on the Arc de Triomphe was spectacular. If the church could could produce the same quality of multi-media production to illustrate the pastor’s points as the Tour de France’s light show did for the awards ceremony, I might buy into the multi-media projection during the service. Then again, if churches could give multi-media shows half as good as the clouds over the Sandias, they might be entertaining.
A hawk was blending with the insulators on the power pole — good hunting strategy. The bee/wasp in the second photo is as BIG as it looks. I’ve been trying to get a clear photo of this critter for a long time. It never lands for but a split second and zips around very quickly. I finally got it in flight. The Asian lily was backlit nicely just after sunrise, and the clouds were quite entertaining throughout the day.
Birded
Sophia was begging to get out and sit on me while I was sitting at the table working on photos at Tristan’s and David’s. Apparently I remind her of her previous owner and she got very excited to be out with me, started grooming me, and regurgitating for me, which is a very loving gesture coming from an African Grey! There is a family of quail in their back yard. Mama and papa quail sit on top of the wall and act bewildered that the chicks can’t get up on the wall with them. The chicks blend into the bark, mulch and wall.
France Day 23 Hittin’ you with my best shot!
We got into the Louvre when it opened, rushed to the Mona Lisa and there were only about 50 or so people crowded in front of her, making it easy to get up to the rope to get the closest view possible. The Mona Lisa is the perfect portrait of the perfect model in the perfect pose. She is like a self portrait of how everyone would like to see themselves, and the reflections in the multiple layers of glass protecting the Mona Lisa adds to the sense of the portrait as a reflection of our own portraits.
After three hours in the Louvre we had browsed the entire Italian and Spanish painters wing and then went through the exhibit on Egyptian art and culture. In the Spanish sections, there was a small exhibit of plates by Goya, where I got the photo of the woman looking out the window that almost matched Goya’s woman on a horse.
One thing really nice about our apartment being so close to the Louvre is that we go back to the apartment and fix lunch before we go out again. Laurie made crepes for lunch that were wonderful, and then we strolled through the Tuileries on our way to the Musée l’Orangerie where they have expressionist paintings by Cézanne, Renior, Monet, Picaso, Rousseau, etc. Along the way we saw goats mowing a moat, a teenage bird bigger than its mother still asking her to feed it, duckings napping, flowers starting to bloom, iris and a few roses.
