has been achieved on my green RadRover 5, notching the first 1,000 miles on this eMTB during my morning inspection of the wetlands. Time to recharge the battery, too.
Here's your morning owl...
enjoying sunrise on one of its favorite perches above the birdbath.
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus), appearing a little bleary-eyed after a long night.
Astonishingly tolerant of my nearby activities, this juvenile GHO has hardly moved from its morning perch over period of several hours. I truly enjoy co-existing in the forest with these flying tigers.
The second GHO has now joined the other, perching in the same tree but a little higher, and similarly at ease with my presence. I believe they’re both waiting for me to turn on the sprinkler.
EVENING UPDATE: These two GHOs hung out all day long, and here are a couple of more shots of these big birds.
Note the nictitating membrane moving across the eye, a transparent membrane to protect and moisten the eye while maintaining vision.
Smiling?
Energy on the move...
by rail from Montana, heading west, providing fuel for electric vehicles and e-bikes.
Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Rail Road coal train above Fish Lake Trail.
Smallest and cutest songbird...
award goes to the diminutive Pygmy Nuthatch, caught here on a brief visit to the backyard watering hole.
Adult Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea).
Sharing an inside joke...
A winking Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus).
Smaller birds also enjoy...
the cooling backyard oasis during these hot days.
A soggy Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana).
Look who's back...
visiting the water feature this evening.
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus).
UPDATE: The following morning, here’s another individual catching the early golden light of sunrise.
Dead calm...
this morning at Fish Lake.
This juvenile owl...
is really going to enjoy the water sprayer I’ve configured in the trees today, having watched it hopping around in the sprinkler yesterday like a little kid, wings spread wide. It was 100° F with similar temperatures forecast for today and tomorrow, and what youngster wouldn’t enjoy the water?
Juvenile Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) in the direct morning light, patiently waiting to play in the sprinkler.
Now nearly noon with rapidly warming temperatures, this youngster took refuge in a deeply shaded corner of my shed roof, wondering what time the pool opens.
Success! Happy owls enjoying a cool shower. They’ve both lingered within the spray for several hours throughout the hot afternoon.
Washed, dried and fluffed at the end of another hot day.
My marmot friends...
are increasingly habituated to my morning visits and are consequently pretty relaxed, this one clearly enjoying basking in the early sun despite my close proximity.
Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris).
Mid-day bonus: A pair of well-camouflaged owls, an adult (L) and a juvenile (R), lurking in the ponderosas near the birdbath on a hot afternoon.
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus).
Laser focused on my position...
there’s no sneaking closer to this big bird hanging out in the ponderosa pine trees around my house.
Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). (Click on image to enlarge.)
More marmot mugshots...
Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris).
Elsewhere in the wetlands this morning…
Yellow-pine chipmunk (Neotamias amoenus).
Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).
Fifty-three years ago today...
humans first landed on the Moon, with Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin being the first men to walk on another body in the solar system. It was only 66 years from Kitty Hawk to Tranquility Base, and now, sadly, 50 years since man last walked on the Moon with Apollo 17.
Apollo 11 Hasselblad photo AS11-40-5875 showing astronaut Buzz Aldrin at Tranquility Base.
Ripply reflection...
on Minnie Creek this morning, plus a bonus macro shot of monkeyflower, both captured in the soft light of dawn.
Common yellow monkeyflower (Erythranthe guttata, formerly Mimulus guttatus).
Marmot motel...
with a balcony view in the basalt outcrops along the Fish Lake Trail.
Yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris).
A pod of preening pelicans...
in the wetlands early this morning, huddled together in a sunny spot.
American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos).
A mysterious rock stacker...
has been creatively at work along the Fish Lake Trail, assembling towers of carefully balanced basalt blocks.
Time to pump up...
the stand-up paddleboard and hit the lakes as temperatures rise.
Calm conditions on Fish Lake in the early evening.
Cosmic cliffs visualized...
in a star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula, among the first images released by NASA from the newly commissioned James Webb Space Telescope. Breathtaking.
Image by NASA/JWST.
Comparative image of same region from the Hubble Space Telescope (NASA).
A citrusy explosion...
in both form and scent can be found in the shaded parts of the wetlands where mock-orange is resplendent right now.
Mock-orange (Philadelphus coronarius).
