First mountain bluebird I’ve seen at my elevation this morning. Been seeing plenty of Western bluebirds with the turn of the season but this was the first visit of their taller, sleeker, more thoroughly blue male cousins. Yesterday and today, the dark-eyed juncos started showing up. And the robins have been coming in growing numbers …
Wildfire smoke from Colorado and Wyoming cleared some Sunday morning and more birds stopped by, including this Williamson’s sapsucker, the guy with the red throat and yellow chest. I wonder why he evolved with such colors, why God made him the way he did. I don’t see the questions as mutually exclusive. They come to …
Cooler weather. Fall traffic picking up. Non-migratory robins seem to have moved down the mountain. Still trying to get good focus and identify what I think is a very colorful sapsucker. I can’t tell whether it actually has some yellow on its breast, like a Williamson’s sapsucker, or whether that is morning light reflecting off …
The sky is so gray with smoke sunrise doesn’t wake me. Western wildfires in June are predictable, but with climate change they seem more frequent — and larger. The smoke this Thursday morning, June 18, 2020, obscured the Sandia Mountains to the south and Indian Country mesas to the west. I could barely make out …
No birds yet … but the orange globe mallow is looking good … and enough coffee in me now to set off on foot for birds on the wing. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Also at Dream Ranch: Cheap art and native plants Georgia and Carl
In my little corner of world, just north of the Sandia Mountains, piñons look like they’re hanging on. I noticed many new cones when I reached the top of the mesa this morning, almost as if they exploded overnight. I have been so focused on snakes and wildflowers this spring, I hadn’t yet really examined …
I’ve spent hours the last two days watching for orioles and tanagers and other exotic-looking migrators but it occurs to me tonight that my most reliable friends are the ordinary finches who hang out here year-around. They’ve been flying around in pairs all day today, singing excitedly. The red caps of the males seem redder …
Walking rain, or what the weather wonks call virga, brushed the Sandias last night but left only a few drops of water. I headed out on my evening stroll after watching Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announce the first easing of coronavirus rules. I felt as wary about the coronavirus developments as I am ordinarily about …
Five days now since the first three cases of coronavirus were confirmed in New Mexico, but it seems longer. It’s been several months since the initial outbreak in China and weeks since the pandemic overtook Italy. Spain and France are locking down. Restrictions on movement are tightening in the U.S. Even CNN pundits said Trump …
Tantalizing but distant. I am a little consoled by familiarity with high desert oddness. Placitas, New Mexico, gets an average of 11 inches of rain a year. A place I used to live, at the foot of Mt. Tom, north of Bishop, California, in the Owens Valley, gets about 5. Both places lie at the …
dream ranch 