Well, I have no idea what it is called but that thin cloud across the middle brought to mind a corkscrew to me. 😉
Stare down with a prairie merlin
I haven’t had much luck seeing these cool little raptors this winter so was happy to come across this one last weekend. It was hanging out on a utility pole not far from my house. Best of all, it was surprisingly patient with me and gave me some nice poses, including this one when it was as focused on me as I was on it.
Merlins are small raptors, a bit bigger than a Kestrel, but are just as ferocious as the other members of the falcon family. They prefer to dine on other, smaller birds, attacking with extraordinary speed and ferocity.
The Mile High City at night from Denver City Park
The Mile High City at night from Denver City Park. From my urban excursion last month. This location is a very popular one for capturing images of the Denver skyline and you can see why.
In the foreground, Ferril Lake and the historic boat pavilion of City Park. The towers of downtown Denver lie behind including the iconic ‘cash register’ building. Beyond, the silhouettes of those fantastic Rocky Mountains are seen thanks to a full moon at the time.
Pronghorn doe and fawn pay close attention
Look at that cute little one! Isn’t it precious? I was scrolling through some older pics this AM and came across this one that I hadn’t shared before. It isn’t often you get a chance to photograph a pronghorn baby so this was a fun one from last June.
We were camping on Colorado’s far eastern plains and as is the norm, the rest of my crew was opting to sleep in. I, on the other hand, headed out to see what I could find and happened across these two. The fawn was probably no more than a week or two old and, obviously, much smaller than its mom.
Before the arrival of western Europeans, it is believed as many as 40 million pronghorn roamed the open rangelands of North America – possibly more than there were bison.
Hunting and fragmentation of their habitat by fences and human settlements took its toll and as few as 20,000 remained at the start of the 20th century. Thankfully conservation and education saved them from extinction and they now number almost 1 million.
Bison battle for Tatanka Tuesday
What a fantastic display of the power of this American icon! As a recent snowstorm wrapped up, the bison were extraordinarily active, seeming to relish the cold and snow.
These two bulls put all that energy to work attempting to one-up each other. Back and forth they battled for 10 minutes, pushing each other through the fresh snow. It was tons of fun to watch these 1,000+ pound creatures battle!
It used to be we called these buffalo but that actually was incorrect. While they are part of the same family that includes the European and African buffalo, the Bison is its own, distinct species.
It is believed they were called buffalo by early North American explorers due to their resemblance to the Old-World species. Native Americans call them Tatanka, a Lakota word that translated means “bull buffalo.”
The phases of the lunar eclipse
I tried a number of different arrangements stitching together the images I took last night to show the progression of the eclipse. I think this is the one I like the best. It shows it all the way from the full moon before the eclipse started to when there was just a sliver and then to the blood moon.
As always, I find these types of events fun but sometimes frustrating because you only have one chance to get it right. The next lunar eclipse isn’t until 2021 so that is a long wait to try again.
Overall, I am pretty pleased with my results. I do wish I had more time to spend taking pics while it was in totality but I had to get my butt to bed so I could function at work today. 😉
Total lunar eclipse among the stars
Just a quick edit of one of my pics of the big celestial event last night as I had to get to bed and sleep before work today.
We were very lucky here in the Denver area in that while we had clouds much of the day yesterday, it cleared off quite nicely after dark. That gave us prime viewing for the so-called “Super Blood Wolf Moon” (or whatever the hype-masters called it). 😉
One of the things that struck me most about the event was that once totality was reached, the stars really brightened up and became quite visible. Here in the city, we don’t usually see so many except when there is a new moon.
I decided this is probably one of my favorite shots from the night as it offsets the moon and allows you to really see all the stars.
A quick test shot of the full moon as I gear up for the lunar eclipse
Skies have thankfully cleared here in the Denver, Colorado area so hoping for a nice show. I will stay up until totality but then will miss the last half as I have to go to work early tomorrow.
Northern Harrier gives a blue sky flyby
A fast but fun encounter with this cool, female yesterday. She was patrolling the rural roads of eastern Colorado and flew right by me.
These hawks are quite common here, particularly during the winter. They are, however, not easy to get pics of as they fly fast and low in very erratic patterns.
That owl-like face of theirs serves a purpose in that it focuses sound to their ears as they fly. This allows them to hear their prey in the brush below, sometimes before they even see it.
Bald eagle launches while staying focused
Boy, if looks could kill, this handsome fellow might have left me dead. Haha!
He and his mate were hanging out on an osprey stand in northern Colorado recently. They were very kind to me, giving me some fantastic poses of the two of them and then, this sequence of him as he departed.