Pre-dawn
I Tought I Taw a Putty Tat?
Oh! I did! I did see a putty tat!
Venus and Jupiter
The Rio Grande is running high this afternoon.
I Tought I Taw a Putty Tat?
Tag: photography
You Beavers Lighting Up Our Lives
Got lighting? There was six beaver in the river at Beaver Point tonight.
Jupiter’s moons were in a formation I had not seen before. When I looked at the image on my camera’s screen at 5:00 am I thought I was moving the camera and getting a double image of the moons, but since Jupiter is round, the moons were really sitting side by side.
The moon through a thin layer of clouds.
Frog Art
Dawn’s pinks and purples
Wait for Sun to show its face
Daybreak colors pale
What happened to eggs
Ditch is dry brutal drought’s woes
We will never know
From flatulent frogs
Bubbles rise ripple water
Laughing in the lake
Bullfrog watches me
From a puddle drying up
Ditch has done gone dry
It is so like men
Breaking wind water bubbles
pulled a frog’s finger
Trees form a green crown
Against the sunset’s orange grays
Another day gone
Green Eggs No Ham
Dawn
What looked like moss in the shallow water running at the bottom of the irrigation ditch turned out to look like tiny eggs, but I have no idea what laid them if they are eggs. It looks like thousands upon thousands of eggs and it’s hard to imagine what could lay so many eggs.
A closer view of what looks like eggs on the bottom of the ditch.
Sliver moon through the slats in the miniblinds
The clouds cleared after sunset and we were able to see the sliver moon through the window in Beaker’s and Søren’s room.
The moon through the window.
The Rio Grande was still running higher this afternoon from the rains up north.
Early Beaver Shot The Bunny
Dawn
NE view of the Rio Grande on Wednesday evening. NE view of the Rio Grande this morning.
SE view of the Rio Grande on Wednesday evening. SE view of the Rio Grande this morning.
A beaver up and out at dawn.
Bunning through the fence.
Shots of the Bunny
pTerodactyl at dawn.
Spunk is a Cat Tree hugger.
We got a really violent thunderstorm this afternoon. The wind was strong, driving the rain sideways, and the visibility was low. The weather station recorded the event as producing 0.95 inches of rain. The wind-driven rain got almost everything on the deck wet.
The clouds right after the thunderstorm. Views looking east and west.
The clouds at 7:30 pm. Views looking east and west.
8:11 pm (official sunset). Views looking east and west.
Gully Washer
Clouds were building up in the late afternoon. We got a fifteen-minute gully washer at 6:40 pm. Turn up the volume on the video and listen to the rain.
The sky 40 minutes before the storm looking east, west and southeast.
A tiny rainbow before the storm
Beehind And Beeyond
Dawn
Dusk
The Mystery Bird Identified?
I went out to check on Venus and the moon this morning, but they were blocked by clouds. However, I got a clear view of Jupiter with four of its moons.
No one could I identify this bird I posted on July 5th. The bird is small and around 200 feet from me when I took the photo. Now I think it’s a juvenile Western Bluebird.
Juvenile Western Bluebirds up close and personal.
Buddy finally got de-coned. I was in the field this morning, so by the time I got to see Buddy, he had worn himself out. He may have to wear the cone again when he gets his eyelid fixed. But that’s a month away.
Sliver Moon, Venus, Flash Flood
Venus and the moon rising through the clouds at dawn.
Venus
We did not get rain last night, but there were flash flood warnings for Sandoval County. Obviously, there was a significant amount of rain and flash flooding to the north of us as the Rio Grande’s water level rose about 3 feet last night. It was receding this evening when I was out at the river.
The Rio Grande looking north from Beaver Point last night and tonight.
The Rio Grande looking south from Beaver Point last night and tonight.
The red strip of mud between the light-colored bank and the water is how high the river rose and then fell from last night to tonight. About 3 feet.
Speaking of Beaver Point, a beaver swam by, crawled out of the water, went up onto the bank and disappeared into the willows.
The Black-crowned Night-heron was out hunting on the river to the north of Beaver Point. It looks like it got a fish.
Clouds reaching out this afternoon. No rain on us.
Where Did All The Water Go?
In my last post I responded to comments about the Rio Grande running low that in the 60s, 70s into the early 80s, the Rio Grande would dry up in the summer months. The current headlines read “Rio Grande runs dry in Albuquerque for the first time in 40 years“. The water is running low, but it is still running through Corrales. Other people have asked when will the drought end? Based on historical trends, I’m guessing we will be under drought conditions for another seven years or longer. I put together the page below that shows historic trends in annual precipitation and the Palmer Drought Severity Index. Note the Storage levels in Elephant but follow the drought index. There was a very severe drought in the 1950s. We might reach that level of severity over the next several years. While the current conditions are alarming, they are not unprecedented. Another article you might be interested in is “5 droughts that changed human history” on the World Economic Forum website.
Climate is always changing, and those changes in warming and cooling and flooding and drought run in various cycles from a few years to thousands of years to tens of thousands of years. I remember a person mentioning to me that the goal of the current fight against climate change was to get the earth to have a constant temperature of 70º F (21º C). All I had to say is that if the climate warriors who apparently believe they have God-like powers actually reach that goal, the earth will be dead. I don’t know how common the idea that the war on climate change is to stop the climate from changing in an attempt to establish a constant temperature, but just that fact that someone actually believed it I found quite frightening.
On the Rio Grande this afternoon looking north from Beaver Point.
On the Rio Grande this afternoon look south from Beaver Point.
Stormclouds all around
The Drought
By Timothy Price
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Scorched earth cracked white clay
Fried in dryness, woe
Drought sucks life’s blood away
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Thirsty plants bow their heads
Pray for rain, the watershed
Parched seeds cry die of thirst
How have we earned this curse?
Sun shines happiness
We frolic in deceptive rays
Encourages us to foolish ways
Water’s precious, so we say
But we waste it anyway
In denial as it dwindles
Less and less from day to day to day
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Where once water flowed clear and cold
Green slime clings to mud
The water’s foul, so the waterfowl
Fly off in search of some
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Where did all the water go?
Off Center & Not Even 