Pre-dawn
Morning moon
Doppel sleeping on Laurie at 5:00 a.m.
Rio Grande and Sandias at dawn
Another broken cottonwood
Jake
Doppel happy to be safe and secure inside.
A little color at sunset
Dusk
Baby Bullsnake at dusk
Daddy Owl
Spidery cloud at dusk
Venus
Doppel loves to snuggle
Sunrise
This morning’s Spunk Art
I found this adorable baby hognose snake on our walk this evening.
Gwendolyn and Loki
Sunset
Lady Banks
Linda and Herman. Don’t look at the last photo. It’s of a SsssNaKe!
Harleys in the parking lot
Lady Banks
We got out to the owls late. Walter and Willa were looking for Nora and peeping a lot.
As it got darker, Walter (on the left) started turning into a Yeti.
The Big Dip!
Moon
Sunset
• ~WARNING!~ • ~WARNING!~ • ~DANGER!~ • ~DANGER!~ • SsssNaKe Ahead!
“SssNaKe? EeeeK! Oh! Are you talking about me?
I stopped and took this large Bullsnake off the road while I was riding this afternoon.
Clear and hot today. 103ºF (39.4ºC), not a cloud in the sky.
Peter, Paul, and Mary together at dusk.
Like typical teenagers, PP&M are easily distracted. It took a lot of effort to get all three to look at the camera.
Paul seems to be acting like he’s feeding Mary while Peter looks at other things.
All three in a tangle of branches. Paul moved down to a lower branch, and Peter flew over to the other side of the Tangle Heart Tree.
Daddy Owl showed up with a snake, perched on a branch below Peter, and started doing his “I’m back from Wowlmart, honey!” hoot for Mama Owl to come and take the snake. While he was waiting for form Mama, he was messing with the snake that started out wrapped around Daddy Owl’s leg.
Mama Owl landed on the Tangle Heart Tree with something in her beak. Daddy Owl flew over to the Tangle Heart Tree and land with the snake dangling from his beak. Before Mama Owl could hop up to where Daddy Owl was and make the exchange, Peter flew over to Daddy Owl to get the snake.
A lot of flapping of wings and gnashing of beaks took place before Peter secured the snake in his beak.
Mama Owl started up toward Peter, and Daddy flew back to Wowlmart. Mama seemed like she was trying to get Peter to take her morsel, but Peter was saying “But Mama! Can’t you see I have a snake?” Mama finally flew off and left Peter to eat his snake.
Mama flew over to a tree she often perches on by our gate to the ditch and watched the lingering colors fade away.
Sunset colors and the moon in the Tangle Heart Tree last night.
The moon at 84.8%
An August blue moon rose orange. Turned blue above the clouds.
Blue rose for breakfast. A thawed, well heated, frozen rat.
Sine wave cut in sand
Meanders like river’s flow
Serpent’s impressions
Dawn
Near sunset
I got a video of a Coachwhip Snake (Masticophis flagellum testaceous) swimming in the irrigation ditch. I know a lot of people have trouble with snakes, but they are really quite beautiful. It’s not often I see a Coachwhip Snake taking a swim. After we got back from checking on the owls and walking in the bosque this morning, I wrote a song to go with the video, appropriately named Coachwhip Snake. I recorded the song and put it all together in the above video this afternoon. Enjoy!
Coachwhip Snake
Lyrics: Timothy Price
Music: Timothy Price
Verse
Slither swimming in the ditch
Sloppy sine wave between the wake
Slips the bank scales in cross-stitch
Stops and eyes me with suspicion
Bridge
We stand we stare he and me
Paparazzo and snake admiration
Chorus
Masticophis flagellum testaceous
That’s what I said
Beautiful snake, braided scales
Colubrid whipped up in western red
Verse
Slither swimming in the ditch
Sloppy sine wave between the wake
Bridge
We stand we stare he and me
Paparazzo and snake admiration
Chorus
Masticophis flagellum testaceous
That’s what I said
Beautiful snake, braided scales
Colubrid whipped up in western red
I was walking out to the bosque when I saw a large bird in the distance. I could not tell what it was backlit against the sky, but the white band on the tail was easy to see, which made me think it might be a Bald Eagle. However, when I enlarged to photos on the computer, I could see it was not a Bald Eagle. By the size, dark color and the two white bands on the tail, I thought it was a Harris’ Hawk with a snake. However, Susan Hunter pointed out it’s a Common Black Hawk.
Off Center & Not Even 