We go West to East in April, East to West in October. Two pilgrimages a year, with some photography missions enroute which are exciting for me, a little boring for Rosie, the Yorkie-Poo. One mandatory stop is in Sedona to hook up with my good friend and photographer, Ted Grussing. An afternoon walking the "Ponds" produced a dining Osprey and a Broad-winged Hawk. I missed a meet-up with my falconer friend, Michele Losee, who was busy getting her mews ready for some exciting new residents that I hope to meet next Fall. Check out her site at International Raptor and Falconry Center here.
Ted has a great boat, which we took to Lake Pleasant on Monday, and spent over 5 hours on the water! Exploring all the channels and islands produced a fine collection of wildlife, flying and non-flying, displayed in the gallery below.
Some lake scenery is interspersed with several Bald Eagles with some adolescents in the nest, a Black-crowned Night Heron, Great Blue Herons, a Double-crested Cormorant, a Great Egret, Ruddy Ducks and Western Grebes, an Osprey with lunch and a Turkey Vulture. Ground-bound are the ubiquitous Wild Burros, and we even caught up with a couple of turtles.
According to Lake Pleasant Herd Management, the 103,000 acres surrounding the Agua Fria River area provides grazing for almost 500 of the wild Burros. Interesting to note that 90% of them are grey in color, with only 10% dark brown. Now, that turtle I am leaving to the experts to identify because I have no clue what variety it is. Interesting shiny back and it was quite large, about 10" across.
One last item of note deals with the remainder of my trek across New Mexico on my way to Michigan. With an 8-hour drive to our next overnight scheduled in Oklahoma City, we were sidelined for a little over 4 hours just east of Albuquerque for a major crash and fire on I-40. What little information I could find online only mentioned a semi trailer and an SUV, although pictures I retrieved from videos also showed an RV of some sort. Prayers for all involved with hopes for no injuries.
Delaying by one day to recover from my late arrival gave me time to get this new blog post updated. I hope you enjoy perusing the pictures!
