Droning

 

Laurie’s parents gave me a drone for Christmas. The above video is Spunk’s and my first go at flying it and taking aerial video. Spunk was sort of okay with the drone’s propellers spinning until it took off. Then he made a run for it as the airborne, buzzing beast followed him. The other cats were inside and didn’t partake in droning this go-round.

Sunset & Hawk

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Below is a Red-Tailed Hawk that was in an apple tree in Wagner’s orchard nextdoor. The first two photos were taken this morning, and remaining photos where taken this evening after sunset. The mud had dried a little in the evening, so I walked across the field to get closer photos. The hawk flew which allowed me to get backlit photos of it flying.

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Sandhill Cranes missiling over the orchard on their way to the river.
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Resa’s tree from the ditch bank.

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Silly Goose
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Robin’s Tree from the backside.

Resa’s Tree in Morning Light

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Resa’s Tree looking north.

I was thinking that Resa’s tree might turn all yellow before turning brown; however, we had a har frost last night that turned the lower leaves brown. Many of the trees in the bosque that were yellow last night turned brown today.

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Resa’s Tree looking northeast.
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Resa’s tree backlit looking east.
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Sandias reflecting
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Cottonwood in the bosque that still has a yellow on top.

Balloons, Boats & Buzzards

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We had a clear morning, not a cloud in sight, for the second day of the 48th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Balloons launched in a mass ascension, but there was no wind to speak of, so the balloons hung over the balloon field for a couple of hours.

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This pink flamingo boat is what I believe to be the first special shape boat to be on the Rio Grande during the balloon fiesta.  Kayakers, canoeists, and paddle boarders paddled, floated and shoved their way through the shallows of the Rio Grande as they watched the balloons.

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My neighbor texted me that there were buzzards (Turkey Vultures) in the dead cottonwood a couple of properties south of us. There were still four hanging out in the tree sunning themselves and watching the balloons when I got there. Three flew off soon after I arrived, while the one remaining buzzard shook the dust out of its feathers and settled in to watch what was going on below.

Painted Sky

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My green red car got the best average yet at 43.7 mpg driving 358.4 miles. I thought I was going to squeeze an average of 44 mpg out of it this tank, but one day of really heavy stop and go traffic nixed the 44 mpg average. When I filled the tank it took 8.2 gallons of gas, which when you divide 358.4 miles by 8.2 gallons you get 43.7073 mpg. Normally when I divide the miles by the gallons the mpg is a little lower than what the car’s computer calculates because of the variation on where the pump kicks off. This time the car’s computer and the pump synced.

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