Tag Archives: spring

I may Be A Pig But I Love You

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“I may be a pig, but I love you”. That’s what we heard, that and other porcine endearments that were floating in the air at Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge as these two Javelina displayed their affection for each other in open courtship. It was a surprise to find them at the refuge as Bosque del Apache is primarily known for birds. Snow geese, Ross’ goose, Sandhill cranes and the occasional Tundra swan, not to mention every variety of Hawk and eagle, egret and duck, owls, pigeons, goatsuckers and songbird you can imagine.

But not Javelinas. Especially not Javelinas in love. It was unmistakable, they were unabashedly involved with each other, rubbing their flat little pink snouts together, snuffling, standing side by side and stroking each others back with their necks, giggling and muttering little piggy names to each other as they made plans for Javelina trysts.

As we watched they continued as if we were not there, oblivious to everything but each other. When their passion reached a fever pitch they would discretely move off into the brush to be alone then come back out trying to act as if nothing had happened. Yeah, right, we knew. They couldn’t hide it. Like we couldn’t tell that they were Javelinas in love. Occasionally they would stop and watch us for a moment or two, pose for pictures, then become enraptured with each other again and head for the brush. Finally it just became embarrassing and we left.

Spring is slowly coming and with it signs of love are everywhere. If you go south from Colorado in a straight line you will eventually encounter Spring. It will be a solid line that stretches roughly east to west. On one side of it, usually the south side, you will see flowers, and bees messing around, and song birds making suggestive sounds to each other, and lots of love, and on the other side, normally the north side, you will find snow and cold and brown grass, grumpy people and very little love. Right now that line is about twenty miles north of the Mexican border, however each and every day it moves north a little bit. But soon, uh huh, soon it will make its way north toward us and maybe you even, and it will be bringing you-know-what with it. That’s right, Pigs in Love.

Now before you get the wrong idea, it’s not just pigs that get in love, it ‘s everything. Name a creature and when spring hits it, it’s in love. You have to be careful your very own self when you go outside in spring because it doesn’t play favorites, if you’re in the way it’s going to hit you, and before you know it, Whammo Sammo you’re in love and probably out in the bushes somewhere. You’ve been warned, if it can get pigs it can get you. So watch out.

Hey! What’s The Holdup?

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We just received an urgent message from one of our summer residents regarding the weather up here on The Institute’s grounds. Normally our summer people, in this case the Bluebirds, begin arriving at the end of February, first of March and find themselves up to their tail feathers in snow and cold. This winter however has been different with milder temperatures and almost no snow.

Apparently what is making the bluebirds itchy is the fact that now that satellite TV is so prevalent, even down in central Mexico where these guys winter over, they can watch the Weather Channel and figure out when they should start back. The Eastern bluebirds don’t have a problem. They watch the east coast getting dumped on and they go “No way, Jose. I’m good right here for another month.” They have no problem hanging out down here catching rays and eating Maguey worms until things break up North.

Our Mountain Bluebirds are of hardier stock and they’re tired of the good life down there in mañana land and they know how tough it is to get reservations in the better places. Their wives are reminding them everyday that egg time is getting nearer and if they want that good nesting box down by the pond where all the bugs are they better get their feathery little butts in gear and get this show on the road. Hence the cryptic message “Hey! What’s the Holdup? You guys ready, or what?”.

Well our response was “Hey yourself! We’re not in charge of Spring, buddy, if I was you I’d be gone already.” There is no holdup weather-wise as far as the Institute is concerned so we sent word down, the gates are open, and if you want that nesting box by the pond you better have your deposit here by the end of the week or we turn it over to our timeshare people and they’ll put it out there for bids. This is a cutthroat business. There are a flock of a lot of bluebirds out there and only so many nesting boxes so this is one of our critical times to maintain our cash flow. The Institute as you know is a non-profit endeavor but we do have expenses and if we don’t make our bottom line, people go home, you know what I mean? We love our little feathered friends but if they don’t pony up you’ll find them walking down the road dragging their little egg sack behind them.

Now that the word has spread that the weather’s ok, and we’re open for business, the deposits are pouring in and we expect to see out little blue buddies in a week or so. The only problem we have is the squatters that have hung around all winter, I don’t know where, someplace warm and out of the wind I guess. They sneak in the first warm day regardless of the date and set up housekeeping in our dryer vent way up high on The Institute’s wall where you can’t get at them. Last year we hired a team of Barn Swallows to evict them and that solved the problem. We lost about a week and a half’s rent but it could have been worse. The Barn Swallows made up for it, they pack about 30 of them in that space and as we charge by the head we came out ok.

Below is a shot of the offender that now hangs on our undesirable board. He has been put on the very bottom of the list for the next 11 years and since bluebirds tend to only live around 9 years he’ll be setting up housekeeping down by the landfill for the foreseeable future. The words’ out pretty good now “No Line Jumping!”

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Now onto the next big problem, where to put all those Barn Swallows.

Spring Is In The Air

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SpringIsInTheAir Goldens9013Golden Eagles Colorado                        click to enlarge

Another sure sign of Spring is when the Goldens start settling into their nests. Here we see a pair who have just recently moved into an old Victorian they found on the cliff face near a lake and like all newlyweds they are trying to make it their own. One of them is returning with a new railing for the library while its mate looks on critically. These old places need constant attention and it also has to be made baby-safe as they are expecting twins in a few weeks.

This image was made on Jan 27th and even though the area immediately fell into the deepest cold of winter this place stayed relatively warm and toasty due to its south by southwest orientation. The red sandstone absorbs the heat of the sun and kept the nest 15-20° warmer than the surrounding areas.

Those loyal readers with an eagle eye (EPI*) will notice the painterly look to the cliff face, almost as if it is a watercolor. This occurs because the nest is almost a quarter-mile away and it takes every bit of resolving power the long glass has to coax the photons onto the camera’s sensor to create the image. When you consider that you can barely see the birds with your naked eye from that distance it’s a wonder that an image can be made at all.

The big news however is not the difficulty in creating the image but the fact that there is an image to be made. Goldens settling in to start the season means that Spring is on the way. Whoa…., you know what that means,right? Soon it will be warm. T-shirts, flip-flops, eagle watching, picture-taking, warm. Are you excited? I knew that you would be. OK then, Lets do it. Lets have Spring.

*Every Pun Intended

Summer Memories

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ColorGreen9790Sweet Flag                                                                       click to enlarge

Todays image is brought to you in part by the color green. Green is a color most closely associated with summer, that season that seems an impossible distance away. Here we are just a smidgen past the deepest darkest days of winter with the predominant colors being white, many shades of white, a full spectrum of greys, the blackest black of the longest nights and the occasional flash of color which is usually the fleshy tan of a torn Wal-Mart bag caught on the barbwire fence on the way into  town.

Now unless you are one of those many children who were dropped on their heads in the nursery by that sleepy nurse you may find this depressing. Those, the dropped ones, probably revel in all this cold and wind and discomfort. To them I say, “Excuse me, but shut the hell up about the wonders of winter, you crazy person. Don’t you know you are deranged.” I try to do this with respect of course, trying  to take into account the many different souls we have to share this existence with.

Not being one of those unfortunates I am able to get through this time of the year fairly well. I do this by visiting those green, green days of summer by spending way too much time in the summer portion of my portfolio. There I slowly go through hundreds of images of summer, leaving them up on my screen until they begin to burn themselves permanently onto the surface of my monitor. I think green thoughts as I sip a cool glass of iced Jasmine tea and remember when I took this picture, while outside the cold grey day slowly passes.

Outside it still nearly dark but you can see the faint glimmer of the new day starting. On good days the sunrise will cast its colors onto the slightly stained, off-white of last weeks snow and the world is beautiful again, if only for a few minutes. But today the wind is blowing all the color out of the morning so our color of the day outside will be grey. That would also be the color of the day yesterday and I am beginning to suspect, tomorrow. Inside however it’s another story. Inside it will be a bright sun-shiny day filled with the color green splashing its merry self all over every monitor I have on. Think Spring and perhaps it will happen.

Flower Day

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Cascade6802click to enlarge

Yesterday was Flower Day here at the Institute and as such it meant everyone dropped whatever they were doing and went forth to find flowers. It seems a simple task, look for anything that wasn’t green, brown or black and if it had a top that was a different color and was pretty that would be a flower. Some of our staffers couldn’t quite grasp the concept so we had a lot of pictures of things that fit that definition but were not flowers. One of our brighter staffers brought in a picture of a plastic grocery bag snagged on a bush that had colorful writing on it thinking that he had found a flower. Imagine his chagrin when he found out what it really was, the big stupid. Another had caught a shot of a Western Tanager on a branch and was sure that he had the perfect flower picture. Man, I do not know where I find these dummies. I almost gave him a point for being original though, almost.

Then as often happens here at the Institute, our butts were saved by the rarest of events, success. One of our new people, I must learn her name, came in with this. This is what we wanted, a picture that said flowers. Displaying this image on our four story screen, I looked around the massive studio here at the Institute and saw row after row of staffers, dozens of them, sitting up to the highest reaches of our bleachers, who had failed miserably at their task, actually see what a flower truly was, and it brought a small tear to my eye. Not because of their new found enlightenment but because I was saddled with such a bunch of rummies, misfits and dull-normals. No amount of enlightenment is going to make up for these clowns, and to make matters worse, Friday is our quarterly payday. I have to pay them. Fortunately by the time their food, clothing and liquor bills are settled, plus what ever else they bought from the Institute store, I’m only out about 80 bucks cash. The bright spot here is it’s spring. And we have flowers of course.

Got Spring ?

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Got Spring5757click to enlarge

We’ve had snow and the accompanying cold weather all through April and it has the feeling that spring is still along way away. It is virtually sacrilegious to speak ill of the snow and it’s moisture here in the west, especially since we’ve been in a drought and were worried where our water was going to come from. And of course the staff here at the World Headquarters of our Media Empire would never do such a thing, fearing to not only anger the gods but our neighbors in the realm, I mean neighborhood as well. It hasn’t been too long ago that one saw torch-light and heard cries of “There he is. Get a rope!” echoing through the valleys. It is just that after a long winter facing the trek up and down the icy goat trail that leads to the headquarters you begin to long for a little spring, a little moist, damp, high moisture content, spring. To that end we have set the scientific members of our staff, the snowologists, the NOAA guys that have joined us because it was just getting too boring going down to the south pole all the time, Captain Colorado our janitor, excuse me, building maintenance technician, who reads a lot, and several others to develop a new weather phenomenon that I can’t tell you anything about because it is really, really secret. I can tell you though that it has to do with creating 70 degree snow. Oh man, did I just say that out loud. Listen if you heard that you can’t tell anyone. We are way ahead of the Russians on this and getting to the patent office first is crucial to our funding here at the World Headquarters of our Media Empire so keep it to yourself. In light of the important, I would say crucial work, being done here, I think it is only fair that we ask you to pitch in, if you can’t send money then at least help us with some of our developmental problems, for instance we are having some difficulty with the whole melting thing, so your input could be critical. OK then, to answer the unasked question, what does that have to do with today’s picture? Well, everything. meadowlarks are the harbingers of spring, they need to get to work here. They can’t do that if they are feathers deep in cold snow. We need to get this spring thing on the road. So give us a hand, we need you and America needs you!

Spring Storms

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No this post isn’t about exotic dancers despite the title, its about snow and it’s ability to fall in the spring catching you kind of unaware even though you saw the storm forecast on TV, or on your computer, or even by the more reliable method of your neighbor saying “Hey its going to snow tonight.” That’s how I found out about todays storm. I stopped  at the neighbors and Sophie said “Hey it s going to snow tonight.” and sure enough here it is. Six inches, all over the yard, the cars, the steps, (you have to shovel that stuff you know) and more importantly the ground that surrounds our little ranch. We’ve been in a drought here in the northern mountains for a long, long time and it has been way too dry, the kind of dry where you don’t even want to get in a fight with your spouse because the heat might set the woods on fire, kind of dry. Lest you think I’m whining about shoveling snow, well maybe a little, think again, because I’m not. In the immortal words of one of our ex-presidents I repeat his phrase “Bring it on!” as I head out the door hoping the shovel handle is sticking out of the snow so I can get at those steps. The buffalo are a lot like me, shaggy, big, hairy and they are also like that Honey Badger of YouTube fame, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nggAj0cxLro (warning off-color language) they just don’t care. They don’t care about snow, about you standing in their way, about whether the calendar says spring or not, they just put their heads down and plow through it. Just like I’m going to do, just as soon as I find that shovel.