Jupiter with four moons.
Lavender Mysticism
Tag: geese
Splash & Dash
Splash and Dash are when pilots land their balloons in the Rio Grande and then take off again. The river is low enough right now that the gondolas can sit on the bottom of the river since there are only a few inches of water in most places. When the river is running higher, they truly “splash and dash”, or they risk getting carried away by the current if they linger in a higher, fast-flowing current. In 2015 one balloonist hit the water like a Kamikaze. You can see the post at https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2015/10/splash-down. Today the pilots mostly sat their gondolas in the swallows for a few minutes before taking off again. Several balloons splashed in more than one location. The 5-minute video below shows balloons floating in for their splashes and dashes.
Birthday & Balloons
Today is Laurie’s birthday and the second day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta with a mass ascension.
Suns Clouds Geese Grid
Paint The Sky Fantastic
Through the Mist Darkly
Geese Nebula
The Wave
Through the Tangle Heart Darkly
Crane Borealis
Owls
Moon @ 99.5% Waxing Gibbous
Crane Dance
Sunset on the Sandias with cranes in the foreground from Southbend.
Just after sunrise one of the cranes made quite a show of dancing for another crane. There are 21 photos in the sequence with three intermissions. At the end of the post, I included an animated GIF that shows the crane dance in motion.
Quarter moon at sunset.
Daddy Owl slept through the show.
Afterglow
“It looks like the wind is blowing in a nice afterglow tonight.” Wise words Daddy Owl.
Crows on the crow highway.
Ducks basking in the afterglow.
Cranes, ducks, and geese enjoying the glow.
More crows heading south.
Sandias catching the afterglow long after sundown.
Clouds from the bosque view.
Frosty Morning
Frosted backlit leaves.
We had a light dusting of snow combined with frost this morning. The sky cleared in the early morning hours and the temperature dropped to 20ºF (-6.66ºC).
Cranes and geese in a frosty mist.
Frosted links.
Marina’s Incognito Pear tree all cold and frosty.
Snow and frost on the black bamboo.
Travel Photo Challenge Day 8 Taos Mountains
Dawn glow
We go to Taos in northern New Mexico for Day 8 of the Travel Photo Challenge. In August 2009, Laurie and I attempted to hike to Wheeler Peak, the highest peak in New Mexico at 13,167 ft (4,013 m). We got up to around 12,500 feet and turned around because the weather was becoming cold and stormy. We still had a wonderful time with beautiful scenery.
The photographer of the day is picpholio nature photography at https://picpholio.wordpress.com/. picholio combines photography with his love for nature, walking and cycling. He mainly shoots in Belgium and the surrounding countries and does especially great macro photography.
Jupiter with moons and Saturn getting ever farther apart. December 28, 2020.
Canadian Geese echelon flying over the Rio Grande with the Sandias in the clouds.
On the way to Wheeler Peak, 13,167 ft (4,013 m)
October Owls
Daddy Owl was in the bosque.
The owls were out hooting back and forth to each other at twilight.
He flew onto the trunk of a cottonwood before flying over to cottonwoods by the clearwater ditch
Mama Owl was on the tip-top of Mia’s Tree.
Getting a good hoot in. I pushed this photo 2 stops to get a little bit of detail.
Otherwise, Mama Owl was a silhouette.
Cranes and Canadian Geese flew by Mama Owl on their way to roost.
Off Center & Not Even 