While I was out in the bosque at sunset, I saw two owls in a cottonwood, and a pterodactyl (Great Blue Heron) in the Tangle-Heart Tree. I also photographed cranes against a colored sky, and two ducks in the dark.
Birds that flew overhead when I walked out to the river and back this afternoon.
As Suzette was leaving after having black eyed peas for new year’s, she texted me that the clouds looked really cool behind the trees. I ran out and took photos. A third moon was hanging in the western sky.
We celebrated our good friend Lois Brandt’s 100th birthday today. I can’t think of a better way to end the first decade of the 21st Century than celebrating a century of life with good friends. Happy Birthday, Lois!
Blue, our red tail boa, is back from her few months at Tristan’s. The woman who thought she was interested in a boa was surprised by how long they live and how big they get, and lost interest in helping Tristan take care of Blue. After issues like the thermostat that controls the heating system in Blue’s cage failing, we decided to bring her back to our house where it’s much easier for me to take care of her.
The temperature never rose above freezing today. I walked out to Beaver Point right before sunset, and a group of cranes were hanging out in the Rio Grande, wading around fluffed up to keep warm. There was a lone Canadian goose hanging with the cranes, and a duck floated by and then took off.
Lyn Wilderdean would like to join the tree club with Mia, Resa, Robin and Holly, and have her own tree. I have posted four available trees that photograph fairly well for Lyn to choose from.
The first two photos are of a young, volunteer cottonwood that propagated in the irrigation water. Laurie raised it from a sapling after it sprang forth around 2002. It’s rare to get volunteer cottonwoods.
The third photo (taken today) and fourth photo (during summer, in bloom) are of our Chitalpa that Tristan gave to Laurie for Mother’s Day in 2002. It was heavily damaged from a late hard frost in 2005. We thought we might lose it, but it has come back in a unique shape.
The fifth photo is a gnarly old cottonwood on the eastern edge of our property. The six photo is a big old cottonwood on the southern edge of the property.
Spunk forgave me for droning him, and lounged with him during the winds and rain brought on by a storm that passed through this afternoon.
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.
