Category: Animals (page 12 of 13)

Freckles

I set up the tripod today to make sure that the new PalmGrip that I put on my NEX-7 would work with the clamp on our tripod.  (It does.)  I got this photo of Freckles during my testing.

One gripe that I have about the NEX-7 – and I do think that it’s an NEX-7 problem and not a problem with the tripod plates that I’ve tried – is that it sags a bit after adjusting the tripod ball head.  I believe that this is due to flex between the mount plate and the body of the NEX-7.  I think it’s less of a problem when you use a shorter and/or lighter weight lens or use a lens with its own mount plate.

So, for example, when focusing on Freckles, I had to frame the shot slightly higher than what I see in the viewfinder because as soon as I take my hands off the camera, the weight of the lens will pull it down somewhat.

This does not happen with Marilyn’s A77.

In the photo below, Freckles is watching one of Marie’s shoes that I’m waving around above my head.

Friday Fitness Hike

Bob and I met at the Wagner Trailhead today for the Fitness Hike. Ranger Amy showed up briefly to tell us that she had a sore throat.

Textured clouds made for a brilliant sky just prior to sunrise.  I’ll admit to enhancing the sky in the photo below; the real thing was colorful too, but perhaps not quite as saturated.  I could easily dial it back a bit, but I happen to like this edit.  Marie is usually quite critical of such things, but she likes it too.

The sun rose while we were talking to Amy.  She pointed it out, so I turned around and snapped a few more photos.  Here’s one of them:

Our plan was to hike out to Rock Knob.  We took Wagner to Granite and the started up the wash that parallels Bluff.  Just after that first little scramble up some rocks, I encountered a Western Diamondback who promptly slithered into a nearby hole.  Bob and I could easily see into the hole though.  Here is one of Bob’s photos of the snake:

I wasn’t very quick on the draw as I had reassigned the button for setting the flash, but for me, being able to set the metering mode quickly is more important than the flash.  But I finally found the menu option for turning it on and managed to get this shot:

Bob climbed up and around the snake, avoiding its hole.  We proceeded on up the wash.  We crossed Pemberton, staying in the wash leading up to Rock Knob.  Below is a view of Rock Knob from that wash.

As we made our way northward to go around Rock Knob, we came upon a very impressive looking saguaro.  Bob and I spent perhaps ten minutes in the area taking photos of it from various angles.  Here’s one with Bob standing next to it.  You can get a good feel for the size of this saguaro from this shot.  Note, too, that each of the large arms have arms of their own!

One of the hazards of walking in an area with lots of Teddy Bear Cholla is that, sometimes, one will stick to your shoe.  I got this one out with the aid of a stick.  One of the past rangers who worked at the park, Crash, told me that a pocket comb works great for removing cholla.

The blue and white gaiter I’m wearing helps to keep sand and other detritus out of my shoes.  Even so, a few grains of sand managed to work it’s way into my left shoe and found it’s way down between the first and second metatarsals.  I now have a small blister there.

Here is a view looking up the saguaro.  If you look closely, you can see a large nest off to the left.

Here’s a view of that same saguaro with Rock Knob behind and off to the right.  I think we’re looking roughly southward here.

When we got to the Preserve side of the fence, we saw a very bleached bone sitting on a rock.  Here, Bob is taking a photo of it.

Here is a closer view of the bone:

An interesting looking rock…

Bob noticed this tortoise along the way.  I would’ve walked by it without noticing it.  Bob said that he gave it some water and it perked right up.

Some flowers, thanks to the recent rain that we’ve gotten.

 

Hedgehog Cacti:

A view of Rock Knob from a vantage point to the west.  We’re looking east, towards the park (from the Preserve) here.

There used to be a pretty good road in the Preserve which lead back to the Rock Knob Trail.  The preserve managers churned it up so that it’s impassable by most vehicles now.  It was even hard walking on it.  It was easier to walk in nearby washes.

Once we got back to the park boundary and crossed the fence, we took the Rock Knob Trail to Pemberton.  We took the Bluff, Granite, and Wagner trails back to our vehicles.  We hiked exactly ten miles today.

 

Young Callisto and her Mom

The photo below is from June of 2010.  Callisto still lived outside then.  Her mom, Calico, tried to ditch that recent litter of kittens as best as she could, but Callisto was persistent and followed mom around, even sleeping with her at times on the patio.

We managed to coax her inside a couple of months later.  She made loud and very nervous yowling noises when I shut the door and she realized that she couldn’t get out.  Marie felt bad for her and insisted that we open the door so that she could leave again.  But we tried again several days or perhaps a week later and kept her in to stay.

Callisto and Molly

Joe took Callisto and Molly (whom he usually calls “Kitten” or “Squirrel”) out to the balcony.  They (briefly) spent some time together on the same platform.  Callisto later jumped down to the roof.  We don’t have to worry about Molly wanting to explore the roof; she kept escaping back into my office each time I opened the door to take a photo.

McGonagall, Enjoying the Outdoors

McGonagall rarely goes outside, but today I managed to catch her and bring her out to the balcony where I placed her on the piece of cat furniture that Joe and I built.  She was a good cat and stayed on top of the furniture.  All of the other cats want to go out on the roof when I bring them out to the balcony.  Tiger figured out that I had the balcony door open and let himself into my office while McGonagall was out there.  I had to shoo him out and then lock the door.

Another Snake!

Marilyn, Marie, and I went to the Fountain Park late in the day today.  I had hiked up the trail overlooking the fountain to try some more HDR photos.  The sun had set and it was getting dark.  Marilyn and Marie came up to meet me and, as we were nearing the bottom, we saw this rattlesnake slithering across the trail.  I got my camera out and after fumbling the first few photos – I still had the ISO set at 100 and the exposure compensation set to -5.0 EV – I finally got a couple of shots that weren’t all black.  This is the better of the two.  I used the flash for this photo; I think it turned out okay anyway.

Tiger and Callisto

Callisto wants to go outside at just about every opportunity.  She meows for us to wake up in the morning when her Aunt Minstrel comes to the door wanting to be fed.  Often, we let her out so that she can say hi to her Aunt.

But she also likes to go out on the balcony.  She has learned how to jump over the wall, get onto the roof and then make her way to the ground.  Today, she meowed and meowed at the door until I let her out.  Tiger let himself into my office – he knows how to open some types of latched doors – and joined Callisto on the roof.

Callisto had been to the same spot where Tiger is in the photo below, but she was too scared to jump from there.  She also had a hard time figuring out how to squeeze herself into the tight space necessary for perching on the pillar.

Tiger, even though he is larger, has no problem with squeezing into tight spaces.

Friday Fitness Hike

It was raining today as I drove out to the Friday Fitness Hike at McDowell Mountain Park.  It was still raining when I got there.  Linda had already arrived.  We rolled down our windows, said hello to each other and wondered whether anyone else would show up.  We didn’t have long to wait as Amy, Janet, and Bob all showed up within the next few minutes.   The rain wasn’t bad, just a light drizzle.

We hiked the Wagner Trail out to Granite, where we turned right.  Along the way, on Granite, I learned that the new trail which leads up to Granite Tank has been given a name; it’s now the “Delsie Trail.”  Apparently Delsie was one of the matrons of the old P-Bar Ranch.  Much, if not all of McDowell Mountain Park, and much of Fountain Hills too, was once part of the B-Bar Ranch.

According to the River of Time Museum,  the B-Bar ranch was operated by Henry Pemberton in the early 1900s.  Operation then passed to the Coles and then to Delsie’s husband Lee Barkdoll in 1935.  Lee died in a train accident a short while later.  Ranger Amy tells me that Delsie operated the ranch after Lee’s death, marrying Lee’s friend Dick Robbins in 1939.  She had a busy life, driving kids on the ranch and the nearby reservation into a school in Scottsdale.  She’d drop the kids off and then go to her job working at a cafeteria in Scottsdale.  Later in the day, she’d drive the kids home, and do whatever needed to be done for the ranch.  Delsie and Robbins ran the ranch until 1955.

We hiked the Delsie Trail today, taking it all the way to Granite Tank.  Along the way, Amy stopped to show us a plant known as The Queen of the Night.  It doesn’t look like much in the photos below, but Amy assures us that it has a very spectacular flower which only opens after dark.  In the photo below, Amy is telling us about this Night-blooming Cereus.

Here is a better view of this otherwise unremarkable plant with Four Peaks off to the left.

A bit further up the Delsie Trail, Amy turned around so that she could open the Nature Center on time.  It was still drizzling, but we stopped to take pictures before she turned back.

As we hiked further up the Delsie Trail, we noticed that some of the barrel cacti had bright red needles, perhaps due to the rain.

The Delsie Trail connects to the Pemberton Trail at Granite Tank.  We turned left and hiked a short way to where we could see this crested saguaro:

The rain brought out a lot of color that we don’t normally see when it’s dry – which is most of the time.  This photo is from a little ways further along the Pemberton.

A short while later, we came upon this “quadruple” saguaro.  It’s one plant that appears to have split into four very long arms when the plant was quite young.

Bob noticed the sun starting to make its presence known and suggested that I get a photo.  Bob is good at spotting these shots.

We saw this dead tree just as we came upon Stoneman Wash.  We decided to hike Stoneman Wash today.  If you’re going to hike this upper section of wash, the best time to do it is just after a rain because it firms up the sand.  It’s still a wash, but it’s not quite as loose as normal.  It can still be quite bad, however, if equestrians have been out with their horses.  Janet and Linda suggested this photo.

We came across this unusual Palo Verde tree as we were hiking Stoneman Wash.  I thought it odd that the tree had a dead looking spot above which were living branches.

Ranger Amy, who in turn double checked with Ranger Kevin Smith at Spur Cross, tells me that the colorful plant in front of the Palo Verde is a Turpentine Bush.  We saw many of them on the hike.  The rain seems to have brought out the color in them.  Amy tells me that they have yellow flowers when they bloom.

Here is my attempt at photographing water droplets on a Palo Verde branch.

Linda had the idea for this shot.  She took the photo too.  I think it turned out very well.

Bob and I walked right past this snake, a Western Diamondback, and had trouble seeing it even when Linda and Janet were pointing right at it.  I had a hard time photographing it too as I took one shot where I missed the snake completely!  This shot, however, came out fairly well.  Notice though how well the snake blends in with the gravel of the wash.

Here’s a 1:1 crop showing more detail:

We ended up hiking Stoneman Wash all the way to the Bluff Trail.  Once we got to Bluff, we turned left and headed back on the Wagner Trail.

Large black ants were out in force today.  I guess they like the moisture too.  Bob had been bitten by some black ants earlier in the hike.

I got this photo just after taking a few shots of the ants.  I really like the clouds in this shot.

We hiked a little over nine and half miles today in only a little over three hours.

 

 

 

Joe and Molly

 

Bob’s Birds

Bob sent me some photos of the birds that he has in and around his house.  He asked me to edit them and post them here.

A hummingbird built her nest just outside of Bob’s house.

Hungry little birds were born…

Next up is Daffy, whom Bob has had for many years.  Bob tells me that she’s named after the daffodil, a yellow and white flower.  She is a Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, also known as a Yellow-crested Cockatoo.  She weighs 285 grams or a bit over half a pound.

She talks too!  She says “hello” when the phone rings and “goodbye” when someone is leaving.

She’s very affectionate, to Bob anyway…

But, sometimes, she gives him the cold shoulder:

Daffy is often lonely during the day without Bob, so he got her a companion, whom he named Daisy, an Umbrella Cockatoo that weighs in at 500 grams or about 1.1 pounds.

Bob is slowly trying to get the birds acquainted with each other, moving their cages slightly closer together each day.  Daisy has been sticking her leg out in between the bars of her cage so that she can wave at Daffy.  Daffy did not respond well to this at first, but is, perhaps, slowly warming to Daisy.

Daisy talks too.  On her first day in the house, Daisy said “Oh, it’s okay.” in response to some of Daffy’s cries.  But she has said other things too, leading Bob to conclude that her previous owner just wasn’t able to tolerate a noisy bird.  (Bob got her, via his bird doctor, from an avian homeless shelter.)