Wild Cat

This video goes out to Brian who has the Wildlife Intrigued blog. Although Brian’s photography is exemplary, he has more than once mentioned having some fear and mistrust of felines. Spunk, the Wild Cat, will certainly confirm Brian’s suspicions. However, we cannot assume all cats are alike based on Spunk’s behavior.

As you can see from the photo below, Spunk helped me put the video together and approves the content in the video. He certifies the authenticity of all his wild catness depicted in the above video.

Wild Cat
Parody Lyrics: Timothy Price
Music by The Troggs

Wild cat
You stomped my heart flat
You make everything scary
Wild cat

Wild cat, you know I want you
To lie on my lap and purr
So come and curl up alright?
I want you

Wild cat
You stomped my heart flat
You make everything scary
Wild cat

Wild cat, why did you claw on me?
I know I petted your fur
Please don’t kill me alright?
You’re toothy

Wild cat
You stomped my heart flat
You make everything scary
Wild cat

Go on, go on, wild cat.
Oh don’t shake your tail. Oh please? Don’t shake your tail!
Oh! You shook your tail!

All Clear

By late afternoon there were no clouds, no owls, no Pteradactyl, no squadrons of fighter ducks. Simply blue skies, a little snow lining the crest of the Sandias, a ragged Cormorant, a lonely crane, and a time-lapse video.

Above is a time-lapse video Tristan took of the balloons and clouds this morning. This video really shows how the winds blow in different directions at different altitudes in Albuquerque, which makes it easy to navigate hot air balloons around the Albuquerque area.

Cormorant

A little bit of snow along the top of the Sandias with the towers.

The cormorant looked ragged under its wings.

Towers in focus.

A lonesome crane flying around looking for other cranes.

Wood Duck Daze

When I went out on a walk this morning, I found Daddy Owl in the tree he sits in when he watches over the owlets. Mama Owl’s ear tufts barely stuck up above the edge of the hole in the tree. A few cranes flew over close to the tops of the cottonwood trees. Most of the cranes have headed north. Only a few cranes are holding out.

Then I saw something moving in the cottonwoods. It was a female Wood Duck hopping and flying around between branches. A male Wood Duck soon followed. That was the first of three pairs of Wood Ducks I saw in the cottonwoods as I walked in the bosque this morning.

A couple of months ago there were some birders looking for the elusive Wood Ducks. I told them they were too early. They looked at me like I was crazy. The birders acted like the Wood Ducks are rare. Well, they were quite rare in the middle of the winter, but they are not rare now.

I took a lot of photos of the Wood Duck pairs. I was thinking about the best way to show a lot of Wood Duck photos and decided I’d write a song and put the photos to music. The song is not very polished, but I had fun doing it. I hope you enjoy Wood Duck Daze and the all photos of the Wood Ducks.

La La La La Llorona

I presented my paper Quinientos años de lágrimas: The persistence of La Llorona — 16th Century to Present at The 52nd Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association this afternoon. The convention was scheduled to be held in Philadelphia, PA, but like so many things in our world of covid cooties, the organizers decided it was best to do a virtual conference. That was a wise decision, but it certainly changes the dynamics of a conference. I thought it was fitting to add the above parody I posted last year.

The last warning sliver moon in March.Sasha: “Do you like my La Llorona eyes?”

Marble: “No Sasha! This is how you make La Lorona eyes!”

Neither of you has it right. You need to be crying. Sasha & Marble: “Cats don’t cry! Stupid La Llorona!”

Silver: “La Llorona? Meh!”

Spunk: “No stinking La Llorona will get to me behind these bars!”

Glenda: “What’s that you say?”

“La la la La Llorona?”

Loki: “I’m not impressed!”

“Talk to the paws and claws La Llorona!”

Gwendolyn: “Yeah! Talk to the paws!”

Daddy Owl: “I don’t see no stinking La Llorona! What’s that you say? La Llorona can shapeshift into an owl? Ha ha ho ho hoo who. That’s a Hoot!”

Blondy & The Owls

Blondy feeding on an elm tree by the irrigation ditch.

Above is a 48-second video of Blondy feeding on an elm tree. The video is a little shaky because it is handheld at sunset, and Blondy was backlit. I had to push the exposure two stops to get detail in Blondy. The video gives you an idea of how slow and deliberate porcupines are. Blondy is in some ways like a monkey and other ways like a sloth.

Mama Owl

Daddy Owl

Daddy Owl and Mama Owl

The Sacrificial Roll

Spunk view.

A few hours after the current very restrictive lockdown was announced that put a capacity of 25% or 75 people, whichever is smaller, in any store that was allowed to be open, people went nuts, rushed out, and bought out all the toilet paper. I ordered a box of 80 rolls of super-soft, 2-Ply, 100% Recycled Fiber Bulk Toilet Paper on-line at a reasonable price, less than Costco’s Kirkland brand. The cats, especially Spunk, Silver, and Marble, worked and worked on getting the box of toilet paper opened. When I walked into the dance room on Saturday morning November 21st, I discovered the kitties had managed to get into the box and pull out a roll of toilet paper and had started shredding it. Fortunately, one roll was enough for them — the sacrificial roll. We hadn’t realized a roll of toilet paper could be so much fun. Since then they have been slowly shredding it. Spunk, Silver, and Marble have been taking turns beating up and chewing on the roll.

Video of Spunk, Silver, and Marble playing with the roll of toilet paper. All three really go at it, but Silver and Marble were reluctant to really beat up the roll when the camera was rolling.

The freshly frayed roll.

The kitties really like beating up on the roll on top of the card table.

Marble admiring her work.

Silver looked crazed.

Spunk’s tail by his tiger tail he uses to protect us that he placed by the toilet paper.

Spunk at 4:00 am with his tiger tail and toilet paper.

 

Cranes in the Key of C

On October 28, 2020, I posted One, Three, Four with five photos of Sandhill Cranes. Marina Kanavaki at Marina Kanavaki dot com commented: “One, three, four, three, three… that would make a very interesting beat!” I replied “¡Sí! C Em F Em Em as in C EmEmEm FFFF EmEmEm EmEmEm repeat.” I wrote lyrics and played the 1, 3, 4, 3, 3 chord progression on the guitar and recorded Cranes in the Key of C. I put the song together with footage of cranes flying above me, in a field, and over the Rio Grande.

 

I Kissed A Calf

This is the time of year to kiss calves and enjoy that sloppy taste of hairy bovine.

I originally posted this video in December 2017 on T&L Photos. I did not have the recording software and equipment I have now, so I made a new recording of the music and updated the video with the new audio.

Oh My it’s Mothra

While I was standing on the sidewalk in front of the office talking to Jim, he noticed a moth on the front door. I picked it up and it sat on my arm fluttering its wings really fast. I did photos of the moth. In “Live View”, the wings fluttered in slow motion. I converted the “Live View” photos to gifs and then to video and put the above video together with guitar accompaniment. After the moth futtered on my arm for about a minute, it flew over to the wall by the door.

“Up against the wall you red neck…” Mothra†

 

†Mothra is a fictional monster that first appeared in the 1961 film Mothra, produced and distributed by Toho Studios. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothra to learn more.