produce some of the most striking flowers on the Colorado Plateau.
Claret cup cactus (Echinocereus triglochidiatus).
Yoga exercises...
at the heronry today on the Colorado River.
I am shooting these at a distance of ~150 yards, with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV and the Canon 500 mm f/4 EF lens with the EF 1.4x III extender for an effective focal length of 700 mm, on a tripod-mounted gimbal head. I am stunned at the optical quality and ability to acquire tack-sharp tracking focus of this camera/lens under, admittedly, near perfect lighting conditions.
Birds of Castle Valley...
gallery has been added today! Follow the hummingbird and head to the main menu and select Gallery and you’ll find it in the growing list.
Male Black-Chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri).
Pollination in action...
Midday shot of rough mule’s ears below Parriott Mesa.
Dinner is on the way...
European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris).
Meals on wings! (The nest is under the corner of the metal roof.)
Desert varnish...
paints the natural canvas provided by the Navajo Sandstone escarpment above the Colorado River near Goose Island.
Desert varnish is an extraordinarily thin patina of rust-colored manganese and/or iron oxide found on stable exposed rock surfaces in arid environments.
The cows cometh...
to graze the open range. As destructive as they are, they are delicious.
Well above the Colorado River...
between Professor and Castle Valleys is a land surface covered by well rounded pebble- to cobble-sized gravels, chiefly composed of igneous and metamorphic clasts. They are not terrace gravels related to the Colorado River located 320 meters (1,000 feet) below. Rather they have weathered from the Cutler Formation, having been deposited in braided stream channels approximately 300 million years ago.
Strike valley within the Early Permian-age Cutler Formation with Adobe Mesa on left. While not obvious here, this land surface is littered with well rounded stream cobbles. (Click on image to enlarge.)
Well rounded cobble-sized igneous and metamorphic clasts that have weathered from the Cutler Formation, with their provenance being the Precambrian basement rocks in the ancestral Uncompahgre Mountains that existed further east during Permian time.
Introducing Mattie...
the adorable Australian Shepard pup down the lane.
Biggest and baddest sunflower...
in canyon country, and another on my personal favorite list. The leaves may indeed be rough, but the blossoms are huge and occur in large clusters that dot the desert landscape.
Rough mule’s ear (Wyethia scabra) beneath Parriott Mesa.
The bloom marches on...
in the high desert of southeastern Utah.
Yellow cryptanth (Cryptantha flava).
Larkspur (Delphinium andersonii).
Most frequently found item...
discarded along the trails and roads.
Whipple's fishhook cactus...
is the first of about a half-dozen species of cacti in the area to throw out its blossoms. It’s pink!
Whipple’s fishhook cactus (Sclerocactus whipplei).
The elixir of life...
flows from the high La Sal Mountains as snowmelt in Castle Creek, then across a thirsty land where it is put to work nourishing the crops on the Adventist’s Daystar Academy farm lower in Castle Valley.
Headworks with incoming water diverted from Castle Creek.
Headgate is set and locked to limit diversion to that specified in their water right. Excess water is returned to Castle Creek.
Parshall flume open channel flow metering device that is used to measure the flow of irrigation diversions.
The so-called Quakie Shake pond, the storage reservoir for the gravity-driven irrigation network.
Deep dive...
into the extraordinarily lovely sego lily, one of my most favorite desert plants.
Blossom of sego lily (Calochortus nuttallii) with several pollinators.
Optimum thermal conditions...
allowed these two base jumpers to ride the uprising currents around Castleton Tower and stay aloft for more than an hour.
Smokey the Bear...
is the official greeter as one enters the Town of Castle Valley. Respect his authority!
There seems to always be a controversy in the diverse community, hence the “Caution Falling Sky” sign!
The bloom parade continues...
Naked-stem sunray (Enceliopsis nudicaulis).
Dwarf lupine (Lupinus pusillus).
Distinct foreset crossbedding...
has been imaged by the Perseverance rover in the distant outcrops that mark the delta front in Jezero Crater on Mars. This is a clear indication of prograding (advancing) sedimentary deposits in water!
NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired these images using the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager, located at the top of the rover's mast, on 24 April 2021 (Sol 63).
Diagram illustrating bedding relationships in a prograding Gilbert delta (from researchgate.net).
Moonlit Parriott Mesa...
with the International Space Station zooming by high overhead early this morning around 4:50 am MDT. There are 11 ape-descendants onboard the ISS at present, the highest occupancy since it was assembled in orbit commencing in 1998.
Polaris (the North Star) is directly above Parriott Mesa and just a smidge beneath the path of the ISS. It’s the only bright star that isn’t slightly blurred in this nearly two minute-long exposure.