“A good snapshot keeps a moment from running away.” ― Eudora Welty
Author: circadianreflections
My name is Deborah Zajac. I'm a photographer living in Nevada at the base of the Eastern Sierras. I am a passionate nature, landscape, night/astro photographer. I shoot predominately in color and use Nikon Digital Cameras, and lenses.
I hope you enjoy seeing some of the photos I've taken while on my travels.
Please feel free to leave a comment I'd love to hear from you.
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
We’ll be here at home for New Year’s Eve/Day this year. I’ll be making our traditional New Year’s Day Good Luck meal of sausages and Sauerkraut. This year instead of Brats we’re having Aidelle’s Chicken and Apple sausage that I cook in the crockpot with Sauerkraut, onion, garlic, and a few other things to make a sauce. We’ll have that with a salad, we’ll toast with a glass of chilled Prosecco, and I’m making a Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake with a lemon glaze for dessert.
Do you ring in the New Year with a good luck meal? What do you eat on New Year’s Day?
I’d like to take a second to thank you for joining me on this blog journey this year. It’s been wonderful getting to know you and share photos, trips, and experiences with you, and you sharing some of yours with me through your blogs. I am looking forward to seeing where the New Year takes us. I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year! 🥂🍾🎆
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
Last month about a week before Thanksgiving I went on a quick road trip to Las Vegas/Henderson with a girl-friend. She was wanting to see her parents who live in Vegas, and I was wanting to go to Henderson which is just 20 minutes south of downtown Vegas to do some birding. So we got a plan together and went. While she was hanging out with her parents I was birding at the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. I was hoping to see the Long-tailed Duck that is back this winter, alas, I did not see it, but I had a fantastic meeting with a Greater Roadrunner.
I was walking up a path and turned a corner and there it was standing in the middle of the path. I stopped. It jumped back and looked at me. There we stood eyeing each other up. When it was apparent it wasn’t going to flee and be flighty I started making photographs of it. After a minute it approached me! I backed up to keep it in my focal range. It was too close!!! Such a problem to have right? 😂 This profile is the best image I made showing its colorful skin behind its eye. The colors say Southwest to me.
I can’t tell if it is a male or female. I do know it’s an adult though. It stayed on the path walking back and forth in front of me, and crossing the path from side to side for nearly 5 minutes! I have quite a few images of it. I think it must have had a nest nearby guarding it perhaps? Anyway, I figured I’d better get moving and let the Roadrunner get back to doing whatever it does. I thanked it for such a lovely encounter and as quietly as I could walked up the path then when the Roadrunner thought I was too close it darted into the bushes.
That was only the 3rd Roadrunner I’ve ever seen and by far the best encounter with one ever!
For a generation of Americans, the familiar “beep, beep” of Warner Brothers’ cartoon Roadrunner was the background sound of Saturday mornings. Despite the cartoon character’s perennial victories over Wile E. Coyote, real-life coyotes present a real danger. The mammals can reach a top speed of 43 miles an hour—more than twice as fast as roadrunners.
Roadrunners have evolved a range of adaptations to deal with the extremes of desert living. Like seabirds, they secrete a solution of highly concentrated salt through a gland just in front of each eye, which uses less water than excreting it via their kidneys and urinary tract. Moisture-rich prey including mammals and reptiles supply them otherwise-scarce water in their diet. Both chicks and adults flutter the unfeathered area beneath the chin (gular fluttering) to dissipate heat.
Greater Roadrunners eat poisonous prey, including venomous lizards and scorpions, with no ill effect, although they’re careful to swallow horned lizards head-first with the horns pointed away from vital organs. Roadrunners can also kill and eat rattlesnakes, often in tandem with another roadrunner: as one distracts the snake by jumping and flapping, the other sneaks up and pins its head, then bashes the snake against a rock. If it’s is too long to swallow all at once, a roadrunner will walk around with a length of snake still protruding from its bill, swallowing it a little at a time as the snake digests.
Based on banding records, the oldest roadrunner was at least 7 years old.
Roadrunners hold a special place in Native American and Mexican legends and belief systems. The birds were revered for their courage, strength, speed, and endurance. The roadrunner’s distinctive X-shaped footprint—with two toes pointing forward and two backward—are used as sacred symbols by Pueblo tribes to ward off evil. The X shape disguises the direction the bird is heading, and is thought to prevent evil spirits from following.
Isn’t that folklore about its X shaped footprint interesting! I didn’t know that until I read the fun facts. 😊
I hope you all have a lovely week-end. Beep, beep!
PLEASE DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION.
The only sporting venue I’ve been to in the last few years is Greater Nevada Field in Reno, NV to see the Reno Aces play baseball. The Aces are a Minor League team in the Pacific Coast League and a Triple-A team affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
He-Man and I enjoy the games and try to go a several times each season.
Here’s the entrance gate we use. I love the faux baseball overhang.
The team has two mascots Archie the Sasquatch of the Sierra Mountains, and Truckee. Who is a water droplet who originates from the Truckee River. They make the intervals so much fun! They dance, they race the kids, the kids always win, they throw t-shirts, and baseballs. We’ve caught a couple, and they get us up and dancing all. the. time! I get up and dance and do the 7th inning stretch. I will never be too old to sing Take Me Out To The Ballgame which they do every 7th inning. It never get old. The only sport I really, really like is baseball. I also like pool/billiards. Now you know. 😊
The challenge runs Monday-Sunday. Click on the link above on to see more foto fun from around the world or join the craze and add a post of your own. 😊
Circadianreflections Blog 
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