Archives

Gonna Need Some Huge Q-Tips

Clearly someone shorted me a bunch of days this month.  That is the only explanation I can think of for once again scrambling to get my blog quota covered for August.  Appears to have went directly from August 8th to the 28th – as rich Uncle Pennybags says – head directly to end of month, don’t pass Go and don’t even think about that two hundred bucks.

Speaking of bucks…

Mule Deer found at Rocky Mountain National Park in May 2014

Since I started the month with a little something out of the ordinary, finished I’d close the wildlife side of the Intrigued with hooves instead of feathers.  In our parts, we are loaded with White-Tailed Deer.  In fact, I happen to live in an area known for the large size of their bucks.  Over the last several years Blue Tongue, Chronic Wasting and my personal opinion a tag number that is too high for the area as a result has dropped our numbers significantly. So far this season I have only seen one young buck in a full out sprint across a bean field before turning 90 degrees and crossing directly in front of my truck.  If there is one lesson learned from years of country living it’s to expect these creatures will go out of their way to put themselves in danger.  I had slowed to a crawl after spotting it so this one had safe passage to the corn field it decided would be more fun to trample. For the record, one of those beasts destroyed the first car I bought out of college.

KK

Hit the jump to check out some more shots of our friends from the West.

spacer

Can You Sparrow a Router

Well, somehow July managed to sneak up on me.. like the month before and the month before that and the month before.. you get the picture.  Absolutely stunning how fast things seem to be moving in the midst of a supposed lockdown.  It has been a few days..err weeks since my last post thanks to a little annoyance called lack of Internet.  With all the joys country living brings, there are a few downsides.  One is water – I kid that H2O is as good as currency around here.  Luckily that was pretty much solved when we put in a second well last year.  The other downside is Internet connectivity.  This has yet to be solved adequately and it has been steadily decreasing in quality for the last couple of months – doesn’t help that usage has gone up with all the Covid-19 crap.  Just so happens both my wife and I have 30+ years each in IT and to top it off Linda started out as a network specialist.  Problem is she is having to deal with support personnel fresh out of kindergarten.  If they tell her one more time to unplug her router or press the reset button I think she’s going to reach through the phone line and choke them to death.  Not sure when this battle is going to get resolved, but right now access is pretty spotty limiting my posts and more importantly the chance to read everyone else’s posts.  My apologies in advance for delayed responses and lack of commenting on my blogger friends’ sites.  Meanwhile I get to sit her and watch Linda’s eyes get redder and redder … oh shit, they just asked her to unplug the router again #$!@$#%!@%.  Today’s featured feathered friend is in honor of Linda’s eyes that are getting redder and redder each time I look over.

Spotted Towhee found at Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado in May 2014

I can only guess that this Spotted Towhee is also having trouble getting connected to the Internet.  Pretty soon it is going to breakdown and leave the woods in search of a local coffee shop for some free Wi-Fi.  Not an easy task as this specimen was found on our trip out to Colorado a little under one dog year from today.  For those new to the blog I’ve switched to dog years as that sounds a lot better than human years – May 2014 feels like I’ve been trapped on a desolate island with just a volleyball to keep me company.  An interesting parallel to how desolate I feel right now not being able to share strings of 1 and 0’s with the rest of the world   “Is there anybody out there .. Mother should I build the wall”.

Spotted Towhee found at Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado in May 2014

Hit the jump to read a bit more about our red-eyed friend!

spacer

A Bunny Substitute

Happy Easter everyone!  Not your standard Easter holiday by any means, but hopefully you will be able to take a break, reflect on better times, reach out (virtually) to your loved ones and most of all make an effort to shed some of that pent up stress.  I’m in my third day of not being intentionally consumed by news and feeling better than I have in a long time.  Now I just need to get Linda peeled away as she’s been intermittently walking past me fuming about one thing or another she saw on Facebook or other outlet.  Saw this quote on one of my favorite ultra-marathon outlets.

Almost everything will work again if you  unplug for a few minutes including you – Anne Lamot (note, only like here quote – not an endorsement of her opinions). 

Thanks to Shawn over at https://www.scienceofultra.com/support for the reference.  I cannot think of a better time than now to just unplug for a few minutes to get all those internal stress capacitors to fully drain.

Then plug back in and fill them back up with 100% pure cuteness.

Pika found at Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado in May 2014

Hit the jump unless you are scared of soft, cuddly, round eared, button nosed whisker wearing balls of fur.

spacer

A Rocky Warbler

Welcome to March everyone!  Always a weird feeling when another month is torn off the calendar.  A variety of emotions and feelings seems to collide at once.  First a slight wave of panic comes over me as I realize that the quota counter resets back to zero and I have to start thinking about at least 6 new topics worth the time my readers generously give me.  Soon after that a major concern washes over as I quickly compute the days left before the summer’s planned 50K running event.  Then a major swing to the positive as the thoughts of spring make their way in bring a big smile with the excitement of getting back out in the field for the early migration.  Of course, it always ends with the sobering “WHERE THE HELL DID THAT LAST MONTH GO!?!”  I like to keep myself very busy and have a to-do list that probably rivals small novels in paper thickness – hate to leave this world without getting the very most out of it.  While I try to figure out how to squeeze a few more minutes out of the day, figured I’d put out a quick post on a pretty cool looking bird.  Before I do that though, wanted to give a shout out to Brian over at Butterflies to Dragsters (link here) who just celebrated his second year of blogging!  Those of us with our own blogs know very well the work that goes into them and Brian has been putting up some amazing stuff from his outings across the pond.  Check him out and wish him a happy anniversary, you will not be disappointed.

Decided to go with a quick post today from a shoot back in May of 2014 – I know, I know, I’m waaaay behind, but these calendar pages keep flying off the walls.

Wilson's Warbler found at Rocky Mountain National Park May 2014\

Hit the jump to see a few more picture of this very distinct Warbler.

spacer

Happy Gobble Gobble Day

“As God as my witness, I thought Turkeys could fly.” If you are in the 50-60 year old range, you probably recognize that quote instantly and remember with admiration for one of the truly funny sitcoms of the era – WKRP in Cincinnati. A time when I could sit down, enjoy a bit of TV and laugh a little for 30 minutes – now, not so much – in fact very little is worth my valuable time these days. Sure it was filled with political and social commentary (ad boycotting, proton/electron gangs, freedom of lyrical speech come to mind), but regardless of your position, the intelligent writing, wit and delivery could still be enjoyed by different perspectives. I guess I should be grateful on this Thanksgiving Day for the extra time I have to focus on my photography and blogging. Have a wonderful holiday wherever you might be, stay safe in your travels and enjoy today’s timely feature of Turkeys that CAN fly (a bit at least ha).

Tom Turkey Shot at Rocky Mountain National Park May 2014

This particular Tom Turkey was an unexpected surprise.  Linda and I had stopped to take pictures of a Great Horned Owl in Rocky Mountain National Park back in May 2014.  You might recall, we were able to get some shots of both the mother and her Owlets (link here).  I had moved to a location up on a hill allowing me to shoot almost directly into the pine tree they were nesting in and yet still far enough away that there were no unwarranted concerns by any of the subjects – somewhat aided by the fact I was shooting from behind a large boulder on top of the hill.  So caught up in shooting the owls, I didn’t even notice this dude come walking up behind me.

Tom Turkey Shot at Rocky Mountain National Park May 2014

In honor of today, hit the jump to see a few more pictures and read a bit more about the Wild Turkey.

spacer

Why So Blue Woody?

So far it has been a pretty productive blogging effort this March.  Think this is my third post and the month is only 5 days old!  Truth be told, there was a slight lull in my daily grind with the recent neck surgery which put a hold on my run training schedule.  This gave a lot of extra time to work up images ahead of time – that is the most time consuming part of this little enterprise.  Fortunately, that lull is over now and I’m back to pounding the pavement every other day (today put in 10 miles, but need to start pushing it – race season commences mid April and losing 13 days because of the stitches didn’t help).  While the legs rest for a bit thought it would be a good time to exercise the fingers and pound out a post (never hurts to get ahead of the self-imposed blogging quota).

Since I led this month with two back to back bird posts, figured it was about time to go with something different…
Steller's Jay shot in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado in May 2014
Ummm, well admittedly that is another bird, but it is different!  This time it is not a new bird on my birding list.  See, completely different.  The Steller’s Jay already debuted on my blog 8 years back (link here) It is quite shocking to think I am in my 10th year of blogging – where has the time gone?  The time not spent running that is ha. Like the previous time, this Steller’s was shot in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado back in May 2014.  If you live in the heartland (or fly over country for the coasters) like me, you are going to have to make your way out west if you want to have a chance to see these rather cool looking birds. Probably a good thing for our birds seeing how intimidating these Jays look in person – might give our local birds a complex.
Steller's Jay shot in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado in May 2014

Hit the jump to see a few more images of the Steller’s and maybe learn some interesting facts.

spacer