at dusk, looking for a Junco snack. I love the somewhat macho Napoleonic pose being struck here by the most diminutive hawk in North America. (These guys aren’t much larger than an American Robin.)
Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus).
They're back...
at the feeder this afternoon. Persistent Pinyon Jays. And wonderfully colorful!
A party of Pinyon Jays...
invaded the feeding stations this morning.
Juvenile Pinyon Jay (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus) relaxing in the rabbitbrush.
These two jays, working with dozens of others, shoveled nearly the entire contents of this feeder onto the ground in about 20 minutes time.
A junior member...
of the local Sharp-Shinned Hawk family visits this morning. Again, lousy conditions for photography but this was the first opportunity to catch this little one, all fluffed up and waiting for a meal.
Sharp-Shinned Hawk spying breakfast...
from its perch near the feeding station. Poor conditions for photography, but I do like the posture.
Mule deer trotting by...
this evening as I quickly got a couple of shots off from the back deck.
Dinner time at dusk...
as the herd of mule deer, regular as clockwork, slowly migrate through the back forty.
White-Crowned Sparrows...
are frequent visitors at the feeder.
Immature White-Crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys).
Ten days to landing on Mars...
in Jezero Crater for the NASA/JPL Perseverance rover, targeting this interesting deltaic landform shown below. Launched in July 2020 and now about to land, the geomorphologist in me is now getting very excited!
Oblique view of northwestern portion of Jezero Crater showing inflow feeder channel (upper left) and the topographically inverted delta complex (Link to full res image.)
Black landing ellipse is about 8 km long in the east-west direction. (Link to full res image.)
Geologic map of landing area in Jezero Crater from Williams et al., 2020 (Link to .pdf article.)
Seems like cheating to me...
if you’re just going to land a helicopter on the summit of Castleton Tower.
Hey, if you’re going to travel to the top of the Tower in style, then do it in a vintage 1964 Chevy Impala!
California Scrub Jay...
raiding a neighbor’s feeder this morning, then swiftly retreating to a hackberry tree, shortly after sunrise.
California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica).
Nutcracking House Finch...
working with machine-like efficiency on its breakfast of sunflower seeds this morning.
Adult male House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus).
Every day is a great day...
for mountain biking in Castle Valley, and today is no exception.
Yet another lousy day in Utah.
Animal eye detection and auto-focusing...
on the Canon EOS R6 is nothing short of revolutionary. While I’m not at all happy with any of the image compositions and exposures below, the focus is tack sharp on the eye, where it should be. In addition, these were all shot through a horribly dirty window and nearly directly into the sun. No fill flash was used as birds were illuminated by reflected sunlight.
UPDATE: I’ve cleaned my windows now. What a difference that will make!
The Canon EOS R6...
is the newest camera in the quiver, incorporating the latest in mirrorless technology, and mates (with an adapter) to my array of Canon EF lenses.
First light: Skyline on fire, the approaching sunset this evening, shot with the R6.
The early mountain biker...
gets to lay down the first tracks, especially fun after a two-inch dusting of snow in Castle Valley last night.
The four-inch tires on the RadRover 5 are perfectly suited to the highly variable surface conditions.
Sharp-Shinned Hawk...
perched in the ash tree next to the feeding station on a snowy day, patiently waiting for an opportunity to grab a meal. I shot this through the kitchen window after patiently waiting for the right opportunity myself.
Sharp-Shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus), the smallest hawk in North America.
Crepuscular rays...
forming an illuminated curtain in front of the La Sal Mountains during dawn this morning, with Round Mountain somewhat silhouetted in the foreground.
What if...
Castleton Tower toppled? Perish the thought!
Or, alternatively, another sandstone tower was present atop Baby Carriage Rock, as there almost certainly was in the distant past?
Geometric artwork of hoarfrost...
is sustained in deeply-shaded areas where temperatures never rise above freezing, coupled with a right amount of moisture in the chilled air. The ice crystals comprising the surface hoar that is pictured below are much like icy corn flakes and about the same size.
