Thursday Doors-Rural Decay Doors

Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!

Or barely seen and hanging on door and a bonus shutter door.

I’ve photographed this building several times since moving to No. NV.

Every time I go birding around this area this little cottage or storehouse calls me. I know nothing about it other than it’s an unused building on a ranch next to a place on my birding rotation.

iPhone 14 Pro

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Fog, Clouds, and a Hawk

Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!

We’ve had fog, and storm clouds the last week through the week-end up until last night. We also got a whole lot of snow. Here are a couple of images of the scenery. Recently the mornings have been foggy.

Foggy morning-

Foggy Morning. Cottonwoods, and Russian Olive Trees in the Snow and Fog.

Clouds-After the storm had passed I looked out the window and saw Job’s Peak just peeking out from the clouds, and this brilliant cloud on the left lit by the afternoon sun.

Job’s Peak in the Clouds

Last week I took advantage of a break in the storm to go run some errands, and on my way home I spied this beauty in a tree on my street.

Red-tail Hawk-

We have cloudy skies in the forecast for the rest of the week. Temperatures are forecasted to be lows in the teens, and highs in mid 30’s I hope that holds so I can get out to do some birding and meet up with some friends.

I hope your week is going well, and you have a lovely week-end too!

Fuji X-T3| Fuji 100-400mm Lens| PS CC 24.1.0

more to come…

Friday’s Feathered Friends- Cooper’s Hawk

Copyright ©2023 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

For several weeks we’ve had a Cooper’s Hawk perching on a neighbor’s tree out back. With all the White-crown Sparrows, and Quail about I’m sure it’s hoping for a meal.

I’ve been enjoying seeing it perched there.

Cooper’s Hawk

Fun Facts-

    • Dashing through vegetation to catch birds is a dangerous lifestyle. In a study of more than 300 Cooper’s Hawk skeletons, 23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the furcula, or wishbone.
    • A Cooper’s Hawk captures a bird with its feet and kills it by repeated squeezing. Falcons tend to kill their prey by biting it, but Cooper’s Hawks hold their catch away from the body until it dies. They’ve even been known to drown their prey, holding a bird underwater until it stopped moving.
    • Once thought averse to towns and cities, Cooper’s Hawks are now fairly common urban and suburban birds. Some studies show their numbers are actually higher in towns than in their natural habitat, forests. Cities provide plenty of Rock Pigeon and Mourning Dove prey. Though one study in Arizona found a downside to the high-dove diet: Cooper’s Hawk nestlings suffered from a parasitic disease they acquired from eating dove meat.
    • Life is tricky for male Cooper’s Hawks. As in most hawks, males are significantly smaller than their mates. The danger is that female Cooper’s Hawks specialize in eating medium-sized birds. Males tend to be submissive to females and to listen out for reassuring call notes the females make when they’re willing to be approached. Males build the nest, then provide nearly all the food to females and young over the next 90 days before the young fledge.
    • The oldest recorded Cooper’s Hawk was a male and at least 20 years, 4 months old. He was banded in California in 1986, and found in Washington in 2006.

Fun Facts gleaned from allaboutbirds.org

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 100-400mm| PS CC 24.1.0

more to come…

Whatever Weds. First Snow of the Season!

Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. DO NOT USE MY IMAGES WITHOUT EXPRESSED WRITTEN PERMISSION!

It snowed in the valley and mountains yesterday evening then it rained, then it rained and snowed at the same time. That was weird. What’s that phenomenon called when it does that? Big, fat chucky snowflakes coming down while it was raining. I’d never seen anything like it before.

I woke up hoping the sunrise would be pretty and there would be snow on the valley floor, alas no snow on the valley floor and barely any on the lower PineNut Mountains, but the Carson Range and Eastern Sierras are gorgeous this morning.

Morning after the first snow.

It was 28 degrees F when I stepped outside to make this image, and there’s a better than 50% chance of more snow this morning. I am hoping we get a little more today but, not tonight. He-Man and I have been meeting friends off and on for over a month on Weds. nights to play trivia at a local grill/bar. We’re having a lot of fun playing. We came in 4th on our first night of playing and have made it to the leader board every time since but we’ve not yet made it to the top 3. We’re team “The Silver Foxes”.

I need to scoot and look for the clues to tonight’s questions. I hope your week is going well, and you all have a lovely Wednesday!

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 24.0.0

more to come…

Whatever Weds. A White Christmas

Copyright©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

As I mentioned in my last post we had a window of opportunity to get across the mountains to go to our daughter’s for Christmas so we took it. A couple of days later after it had stopped snowing I put on some boots and headed outside a couple of times to photograph some of the Oak trees on my daughter’s property while the snow was fresh.

Oaks along the fence line
White Christmas after the storm

Last light
Still hanging on

We had a low of 11 degrees on Sunday but, it’s warming up my weather app says it’s going to be 50 degrees today…it said that about yesterday too but, the high was 49 which I was happy about! It was windy making it feel colder but, my walk to the mailbox was pleasant.

I hope you’re staying warm and your new year has started off well.

Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| PS CC 23.0.0

more to come…

Whatever Weds. Fall Color in CO +2

Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

While in CO. Fall was at peak or past it in the higher elevations and beginning in the lower ones so, after the wedding we began our vacation. First up we headed to Kenosha Pass to see the fall colors.

Reflections

Layers of Color

Fast forward…we came home to a cold snap. It was pretty chilly and windy all week-end; it rained a bit in the valley and snowed in the mountains, but on Monday things really got chilly and it rained, hailed and snowed a little, and yesterday I woke up to 23 degrees (-5c) and the clouds had lifted a bit on the mountains so I could see the snow on them.

Lucky me, a flock of Canadian Geese flew by and I got the tail-end of them in this frame. They’re heading Northeast somewhere.

I’m trying a new theme for the blog to see if my images look better than in the previous theme. I think it’s better. What do you think?

Fuji X-T3| Fujinon 16-80mm & 100-400mm| iPhone 7 Plus| PS CC 22..5.1

more to come…