Michael,
Beth and I had been reading in the local papers about Elk bugling during the on-going mating season, so we decided to drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park and hear the bugling for ourselves. When I flashed my geezer pass at the entrance gate, I asked the ranger there, where is a good place to see elk? She was ready for that question, and handed us a little schematic map of where the good elk viewing sites are. After driving about half an hour, we spotted a harem of elk does, and a little further away, two bucks sparring. They were too far away for my camera, so I just shot a picture of a friendly Stellar’s Jay. Its feathers were as iridescent as a peacock’s (but blue).

After driving another half hour, and enjoying the colorful aspen and ash trees (see pictures)–yellow and a pale orange is the best you get here in the fall– we spotted a lone elk buck off in the meadow. He was bugling! But the sound is more like a high-pitched keening than any brass bugle I’ve ever heard. Sorry I didn’t have a 300-mm telephoto with audio recordingequipment. You’ll have to be content with this you-tube film.

Photos

–rakkity

Rakkity emailed this to me today. Some might find it cute, but as one who has waged full scale assaults on those critters, all I can think of is where did I put my rifle. You might want to turn your sound off. The background music will Velcro itself to your gray matter.

Tungurahua

My cockatiel “Baby” and I were sitting on our deck having tea yesterday morning around 8:30am. I in my lounge chair, Baby on the railing snacking sunflower seeds with the visiting Chickadees and Nuthatches. I was enjoying nature’s twitters and squeaks of the morning until Baby let out a desparate scream. I looked up in time to see a Red-tailed Hawk snatch her and carry her into the trees. I leapt up out of my chair like it’s suddenly electrtified and ran screeching into the house. I’m not sure where I thought I was going or doing, all I knew was I couldn’t watch or listen to Baby being eaten alive. I couldn’t stop screaming and running around in circles. Hannah by then was screaming too, as I managed to convey what had happened with shrieks and gestures. We ran back outside and in between my screams I heard a very distant peeping deep in the woods. All the other wildlife had vacated (most likely due to my screaming) and the woods were dead silent, so I knew it was her. And I could tell that she was not being eaten alive as the tone was more like a beacon or a distress signal. Rythmic and regular. Shoeless and afraid of what state we would find her in, we take off in the general direction of the distress calls through prickers and overgrown brush, and a football field later find her sitting on the ground. She is visibly intact and we spend the rest of the day snuggling and sleeping. She made half hearted atempts at eating and drinking, twice she bobbed her head along to a car commercial jingle on TV with me, but I’m sure it was just to please me. I’m happy to report that today she is eating and drinking and singing, seemingly back to her old self, save one broken toe and a small puncture wound on the bridge of her nose. How a hand raised, six inch high, flightless prima donna escaped a wild bird of prey is a story only Baby can tell. And she’s not talking.

Jennifer Koeller

This weekend we spent with Richard and Jacquie on the Vineyard. We left sunny Acton and arrived in Falmouth at the ferry in otherworldly thick fog. The boat carefully inched its way out of the harbor, sped across the water, and then slowed to a crawl as the captain dodged pleasure craft and fishing boats near Edgartown. Saturday was overcast – we speculated we inhabited the only cloudy patch of land in all of New England – but that was fine because it forced Diane to abandon her water-walking, and instead we toured the art district.

I eavesdropped as Alison Shaw, an artist whose love of color may exceed my own, talked with a visitor to her gallery about horizons. Adam long ago noted my inattention to that simple rule of thumb, but I’ve since then noticed many photographers, and painters for that matter, with cocked horizons. I pointed to one of Alison’s photos and asked her under what circumstances she decides not to level hers. “If you do it,” she said, “you have to mean it.”

The heron’s legs remind me of my own.

Yes, I may be obsessed with this bird, but I take great joy stalking him as he patiently waits for some unsuspecting fish to swim by.

Mark Schreiber just returned from Greece and Ireland and sent these photos taken with his cell phone  while hiking outside Dublin and in hall next to the Book of Cells.  I added the background music, “If I Had Maggie in the Wood” by The Chieftains.

Six Rainbows at once.

— rakkity

Michael,

After getting out of the hospital (again) today my docs/nurses said to go easy on the exercise.  So I was on a post dinner amble around the house long after sunset.  I saw something moving out of the corner of my eye.  There were dozens of these little unidentified flitting critters sucking on the nectar of our Jupiter’s Beard flowers.  It was too dark to see what they were.  I called out to Beth inside, “Come out and see these amazing little things! And bring my camera!”

I could get quite close to them without alarming them, and got 8 good photos.  They appear to be 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, not including the bill, which is about 1 1/2 in long. Each time the camera flashed the UFC jumped up about 3 inches in the duration of the flash. I don’t know what that translates to in terms of speed, but it’s *fast*! Their colors are grey and pink, like nothing I’ve ever seen.  Their bill/proboscis is long and bent.

Does anyone know what these are? Genus/Order?

–rakkity

rakkity, you might be interested in Goose’s last adventure.  Someday you two might climb  rocks together.

Diane’s Subaru suffered from a rain of bird droppings without quick washings, and I knew the same would happen to Matt’s now seldom-used Lexus. I searched online for car covers and settled on a mid-priced wrap at about $150.00. It’s important that the cover breathes, but keeps water off the car, and resists ice and snow. Or so my research told me. You can buy sloppy fits, custom fits and custom made for your car, and you can buy covers that defend against falling tree branches , but not backing up Nissan Frontiers. You can spend $500.00 on these things.

I clicked send to shopping cart, then buy, but it registered as a duplicate purchase and failed to go through. That was all the momentum stopper I needed. Two weeks later, while wandering about K-Mart, I found a cover on sale for $22.00. That’s seven of the one I was about to buy, and knowing the car only needed protection for about six weeks at a time until summer arrives, I said why not.

Naturally, I washed and waxed the Lexus before sealing it from the weather.

 

 

Matt, your car’s been asking for you. Says it misses tailgating slow drivers, and the rush of you looking in the rear view and seeing flashing blue lights three feet off the rear bumper, but mostly it longs for the freedom of the open road. I guess I drive it too slowly.

Michael,

You can remove Funny Business from the Upcoming.  My next photo collection will be one of the following:

1. The canals of Boulder  (probably should wait till the spring runoff for this one.)

2. The fountains of Boulder (I might combine this with #3)

3. Boulder’s outdoor art–not including murals & bronzes   (This will be a monumental project and may take a year or so.)

–rakkity