I did not get the full June Moon because of overcast skies.
The perils of irrigating.
Speaking of the perils of irrigating, I also flushed out a porcupine. When he saw us, he turned around, waded back into the water, and climbed the apple tree.
Silver also had a few things to say to me.
Dawn
WARNING! Snake Photos at the end of this post!
Hey! Paparazzo! Looki. See? We need more juggin’ water! ¿Sí?
Silver: “You’re fast, Loki! I’m outta here!”
Our guard Hummingbird. He sits at the top of the Chitalpa, and if any suspicious-looking characters come around, he attacks them.
Owl Newz
Nora on the left. Hungry Willa and Walter in the middle. Osric on the right
Nora was on her branch giving sweet, higher pitched hoots to Osric, who was about 100 feet from her at the top of a tree. We figured she was giving him a grocery list.
Osric gave Nora a gopher. Hmmm! Could be a song!
When Osric brought Nora the critters, it was after dusk, so I only got a few halfway clear shots that I lightened up in post processing so we can see what the owls were up to.
Osric flew off and came back with a packrat.
My what big claws you have, Nora!
After Nora flew over to the nest, Osric flew in, dropped off the packrat in the nest and flew off. Apparently, Nora’s grocery list was for gopher and packrat.
Progression of the sunset tonight.
WARNING! WARNING! Snake photos below!
Me with Blue Boa
Many of you thought that bullsnake was huge. Now Blue is what I would call a huge snake.
I don’t believe I have ever posted a photo of myself with Blue Boa. I don’t handle her much because of my compromised immune system. The results of a recent blood test showed my white counts and absolute nuetrofils are low again. Reptiles carry salmonella, so people with compromised immune systems s should not handle them much.
Laurie took the photos. Blue Boa was squirming around a lot.
Spunk thinks he much better looking than that stinking snake.
Dawn
I didn’t see Daddy Owl when I first went out tonight, and Mama Owl’s ear tufts just barely showed in her nest. I walked over to see the cranes. On the way back from the cranes I could hear Mama Owl hooting from her nest, but there was no answer from Daddy Owl. When I got up to our gate, I heard Daddy Owl answering with different hoots than the normal hoots when he answers Mama Owl. It was getting dark, but I walked down to see what was up with Daddy Owl. He had a gopher. He sat on a large branch and continued his hooting. When the dusk was almost darkness, I saw the silhouette of Mama Owl pop up out of the nest. The Bazooka could not focus on her in the darkness. She flew over to Daddy Owl, he gave her the gopher, and she flew back to her nest. I got a blurry shot right after Daddy Owl gave Mama Owl the gopher.
You can see how much bigger Mama Owl is than Daddy Owl.
Almost half-moon tonight
We walked down to check on the mama owl who’s been sitting in her nest for a little over a month. She and the daddy owl where sitting in a cottonwood across the irrigation ditch from their nest. Mr. Owl would hoot at Mrs. Owl and then she would peep. After he flew, I walked around to the other side of Mrs. Owl, and I could see she had something in the talons of her her left foot, but I could not make out what it was. She finally flew over to the nest and then we could see she had a gopher for her little ones. I expect we’ll start seeing the owlets poking their fuzzy heads up over the edge of the nest to look out at all the people standing on the ditch bank gawking at them in a couple of weeks.
Below is a short video of Mr. Owl hooting at Mrs. with wind and a pesky chainsaw in the background.
You can click on the photos in the group below to see each image enlarged:
Off Center & Not Even 