Dogofthedesert
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Dogofthedesert
@dogofthedesert.bsky.social
360 followers 17 following 290 posts
Retired archaeologist and museum curator who loves the planet he lives on, and worries about what is happening to it.
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American coots (Fulica americana) have white outer undertail coverts, but usually they're inconspicuous. The coots display them when signaling, so maybe this one was trying to tell me something. Photo taken at the Rio Grande in Albuquerque on November 28, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
An American coot stands in shallow water, displaying long, skinny legs. Its beak is white, with an indistinct dark ring near the tip. The eye is red. The head and and the plump-looking body are black, except for an upside-down U of white feathers at the tail. To be more precise, right below the tail. The photo background is blue water with fine but blurred-out ripples.
November 29, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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A female American wigeon (Mareca americana) in Albuquerque on November 26, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
A head-and-shoulders shot of a duck floating on rippled water. The duck's beak is the palest blue, with a black tip. The head and neck are white, with a fine pattern of dark flecks. The eye is brown. The visible part of the breast and flank are light brown. The folded wings are dark brown with lighter edges.
November 27, 2025 at 4:18 PM
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Walking through the Rio Grande Bosque on November 26, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #leaves
A picture taken straight down as I was walking over dead cottonwood leaves. Some are yellow, others are yellow with dark spots from mold, most have turned brown. The image also includes the fronts of my boots and the lower legs of my pants.
November 27, 2025 at 3:50 PM
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Molly the Cat and her brother Spud wish everyone out there a happy Thanksgiving. Photo taken on November 27, 2025.

#cat #cats
Two cats staring up at the camera. To the left, Molly is a long-hair calico. The the right, her brother Spud is a short-hair tabby. Both have pale yellow eyes and large white bibs. They look pensive at this moment, but they can be as mischievous as any cat out there!
November 27, 2025 at 3:31 PM
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When you're setting up a shot of a perched bird, but the bird has other plans... An immature Cooper's hawk (Astur cooperii) exits stage right. Photo taken in Albuquerque, N.M. on November 26, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
An immature cooper's hawk launches itself off a branch, revealing the wide streaks on its undersides and the light and dark bars on its visible wing and its spread tail. The hawk's head is partly turned toward the camera. In the foreground, a branch crosses in front of the hawk's raised wings. The background is the solid turquoise of a typical New Mexico sky.
November 26, 2025 at 11:27 PM
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A black phoebe (Sayornis nigricans) perched just above an irrigation drain, waiting for a bug to fly above the water. Photo taken early on November 26, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
A bird that's all black above and on the sides, with a white belly. Some look very black, but on this bird the black plumage is more of a dark gray. The bird is seen in profile, perched on a twig. The background is a clutter of twigs and dead leaves. The slanting shadows are consistent with the picture being taken early in the day.
November 26, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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A red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) I saw among the scattered homes of La Madera, just east of the northern Sandia Mountains. Photo taken on November 25, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
A large hawk perched on a gnarly branch. The bird's head and back are mostly brown, but with spots of white. The bird's undersides are mostly white, but with streaks of brown. The legs and feet are dull yellow. The beak is gray. The eye is yellow. The lower half of the background consists of more branches, somewhat in focus. The upper half of the background is blurred into vague patches of more or less gray.
November 26, 2025 at 1:31 AM
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After images of a cat and dead grass, time to get back to my usual obsessions. On November 21, 2025, this great blue heron (Ardea herodias) let me get within 20 meters of it, and waited patiently as I took multiple photographs.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
The head, tucked-in-neck, and "shoulder" of a great blue heron, seen in profile. The head is white, with a large black patch that begins near the beak, is widest just behind the eye, and tapers to a black plume at the back of the head. The eye is yellow. The top of the beak is dark, the bottom yellow. The visible part of the neck is mostly gray-brown. The "shoulder" is gray, with a bit of black at the front. The background for the photo mostly consists of light brown stalks of dead grass.
November 24, 2025 at 11:17 PM
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Yes, a picture of dead grass. But ever since I was exposed to Cy Twombly's art, years ago, I haven't been able to see such patterns as "just" dead grass. Photo taken in Cienega Canyon on November 24, 2025.

#cytwombly
Many stalks of brown grass, with curling leaves and tops. The recurring fine patterning remind me of artist Cy Twombly's use of fine lines organized in recursive yet slightly varying loops.
November 24, 2025 at 11:09 PM
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We interrupt this nature photography feed to feature Molly the Cat, who just discovered that colanders are very much like the Yngve Ekström circular chairs of the 1960s.

#cat #catlife
Molly the calico cat lounging in a stainless steel colander. They're in a kitchen, which is only imperfectly seen in the background. Molly is staring at a point just above the phone.
November 23, 2025 at 9:24 PM
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This cackling goose (Branta hutchinsii) landed on a local pond this morning, along with five others of its kind and 11 Canada geese. It'll head back to the Arctic in the spring. Photo taken at Isleta Lakes (Isleta Pueblo, NM) on November 21, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
Sure looks a lot like a Canada goose! Black head and neck with a white chin that wraps up behind the eye; brown back and sides; white butt. But it was smaller than the nearby Canada geese, it has more of a baby face than that species, and in this case there's a bit of a white collar at the base of the black neck. It's floating in rippled blue-gray water.
November 21, 2025 at 11:46 PM
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Am I posting too many pictures of great blue herons (Ardea herodias)? I sure don't tire of taking the photos! I took this one at Isleta Lakes (Isleta Pueblo, NM) on November 21, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
A great blue heron completing its landing on grass. It's wings are still outstretched. The lower part of the S-shaped neck includes many plumes. The dominant colors are gray, black, and white, but the legs are fully exposed, showing that the upper ends of the legs are tan-colored.
November 21, 2025 at 8:29 PM
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An immature or nonbreeding adult spotted sandpiper (Actitis macularius) racing its reflection, at Zia Reservoir on September 18, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
Most of this image is taken up with rippled water, looking a lot like an abstract painting with streaks of light blue, light and dark brown, and dull green. At the top center a bird flies across the image, with its blurry reflection below. The bird is a complicated mix of light brown, dak brown, and white. Its wings are outstretched.
November 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM
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An American coot (Fulica americana) at Zia Reservoir on November 19, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
A black, somewhat chicken-shaped bird looking at me as it floats in rippling water. The bird's beak is white, with a dark red spot ("callus") at its top. The eye is also dark red. The light off the ripples is a mix of brown and golden-brown.
November 20, 2025 at 3:30 PM
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A female or immature mountain bluebird (Sialia currucoides) at Zia Reservoir on November 19, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
For a supposedly blue bird, you have to strain to detect any blue! The bird is perched on a bare branch, with blue sky behind. The top and the back of the head are light gray. The chin and breast have a pale rufous tinge. The belly is white. The eye has a thin white eyering. The beak and feet are black.
November 19, 2025 at 10:57 PM
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While I was at Zia Reservoir this morning, horses came down to drink. Photo taken on November 19, 2025.

#horses
Four horses bending down their heads to drink from the edge of a pond. Left to right, there's a roan, a pinto, a gray, and a bay -- but beware, I'm not an expert on horse colors! In the foreground, coots swim on the pond. In the background is typical northern New Mexico vegetation, dominated by brown grass and brush and multiple dark green junipers.
November 19, 2025 at 10:41 PM
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Try as I might, I couldn't get a picture of this Western wood-pewee (Contopus sordidulus) without a branch in the way. I took the photo back on September 9; by now this bird is either on its way to, or already down in, South America.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
Looking at a bird from below. The head is gray, with a lighter gray chin, a yellow and black pointed beak, and a dark eye. The breast is light gray down the middle, darker on the sides, looking not unlike an open vest. The belly is light gray. The visible tail and wing feathers are black. The background is a uniformly blue sky.
November 18, 2025 at 11:22 PM
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Organizing photos this afternoon, I found an overlooked image of spectacle pod (Dimorphocarpa wislizeni) in bloom. It's a common New Mexico "weed," and a fun one to find. Photo taken in the Rio Grande Bosque, Albuquerque on September 9, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #flowers #wildflowers
A cluster of flowers, each with four white petals (it's in the mustard family). Each petal is shaped a lot like a pickleball paddle. Below the flowers -- blurred, unfortunately -- are examples of the seed pods, whose shapes have been likened to a pair of spectacles.
November 18, 2025 at 10:53 PM
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Ginkgo biloba leaves turning at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, on November 15, 2025.
A cluster of fan-shaped leaves on long stems. The outer portion of each leaf has turned bright yellow, but the inner portion is stil green.
November 17, 2025 at 2:49 PM
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The ruins of the final mission church at Pecos Pueblo, completed by 1717, with the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in the distance. Photo taken at Pecos National Historic Site, New Mexico, on November 16, 2025.
A field of dry grass and low weeds begins in the foreground and recedes into the middle distance. There, to the left of center, stands the red-brown walls marking what's left of the old mission church. Past the middle distance, the grass and weeds give way to evergreen woodlands. Far in the distance are rounded mountain peaks. An intense blue sky includes a few small, puffy white clouds.
November 17, 2025 at 2:03 AM
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A female mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) at, fittingly, the University of New Mexico duck pond. Photo taken during a lovely campus walk on November 15, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds #duck
A female mallard stands in very shallow water, with green reeds behind. The mallard's plumage is a mix of light and dark brown -- very effective camoflauge. Her eye is brown. Her beak is a patchy mix of dull orange and black. Her legs and feet are dull orange.
November 16, 2025 at 11:32 PM
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A male Western bluebird (Sialia mexicana) on top of a Carsonite trail post along the Paseo del Bosque Trail, on November 14, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
A bird perches atop a trail marker and gives me a sideways stare. His head, including his chin, is blue. His breast is dull red. His belly is gray. The eye, beak, and feet are black. The trail marker is white and blue, and the photo shows the word "MILE" in white. The background, which is completely blurred out, is a dull brown-green color (due to dead leaves still on bushes).
November 14, 2025 at 11:38 PM
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This morning in the Sandia Mountains, I was surprised to find a few scarlet gilia (Ipomopsis aggregata) still blooming. On a south-facing slope with good cold air drainage, admittedly. Photo taken along the Tecolote Trail on November 13, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #flowers #wildflowers
A red trumpet-shaped flower droops from a stalk. The long tubular portion opens into five pointed petals. The flower has a red stigma, along with red stamens that end in yellow anthers. The middle background consists of blurred-out stalks and threadlike leaves. The deep background is light brown.
November 13, 2025 at 11:15 PM
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A neotropic cormorant (Nannopterum brasilianum) warming in the morning sun on November 10, 2025. Photo taken at Isleta Lakes, a Pueblo of Isleta tribal enterprise.

#nature #naturephotography #birds
A bird with all black plumage, on a bare branch, with its back turned to the camera. The blue background is provided by a blurred-out pond surface. The neck is S-shaped. The head is in profile. The beak is gray, with yellow at the base. It's difficult to see, but the eye is blue-green.
November 13, 2025 at 3:03 PM
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This late in the fall, it's always interesting to see which insects are toughing it out. This female American rubyspot damselfly (Hetaerina americana), for example. Photo taken in the Rio Grande Bosque in Albuquerque on November 12, 2025.

#nature #naturephotography #damselfly
A damselfly rests on a twig, with blurred-out twigs and leaves behind it. It's clasping the twig with four of its legs. The body as a whole is dominated by streaks of dark brown and light cream. The wings are clear, with white pterostigmata and a reddish blush towards their bases.
November 12, 2025 at 11:07 PM