NDR About aging

[Al Hansen]

Maybe this picture will help you out as you think about the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. You know that Carl Sagan helped us all with his rendition of it in Contact. Just had a flash back to the night I was watching Johnny Carson when he had Carl on his show.

In the meantime, hopefully the commission is putting together enough data to satisfy them that most duck hunters know the difference between a bluewing teal and a wood duck. This might allow them to be able to sleep at night when they make a decision to go forward with it.
Al

Rick, this might help you in the thought process of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge theory. A retired friend of mine was the 2nd man hired when the National Science Foundation put the VLA together. The plains of San Agustin is only 45 miles to the west of us. Bev and I enjoy going there.

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When you talked of the hummers at your place I ran across this very early morning shot from a few years ago on our patio.

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Hey, keep you eye on the ball! My hunting dog buddy who was my first---Chili.

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[Al Hansen]

Well said, Vince. I sure do agree with you. When you said this, "Now I'm in no hurry, and they are even more rewarding after all the experiences. I have no desire to be even one day younger than I am..."all I can say is Amen!
Al

 

[Al Hansen]

Hey Paul, I sure hope that you can get some BWTs when your season opens. Just 6 more days for you. When you talked about the smoke in your area, just this past Monday when Bev and I drove to ABQ we could not see the mountain ranges here because of the smoke from the Washington, Oregon,and California fires going on. The westerlies were swinging from up there down through southern CA and then east across NM.

Al

 

[Al Hansen]

That had to be quite the sight to have witnessed all those bluewings who were on a mission. Thanks, James, for telling about this experience.

Back in the 2005/2006 duck season we had an unusual number of Greenwing teal come this way. We get most of them out of the Great Salt Lake Basin. I think that year I ended up taking 105 of them. There were days where I was seeing several thousand of them flying the Rio Grande corridor.
Al

 

[Al Hansen]

Ah, the special two dog opener! Dang, what could be better, Tom? Hey kid, you are going to shoot your eye out!

It is good to see that you are visiting those neighboring states which has to be a ton of fun. Best of luck when you get back to my home town of Ortonville. Take camera, please.
Al

 

[RLLigman]

I showed Karen your hummer photo. Her response? She exclaimed, "That is amazing! I wonder how many flowers were still blooming at that time?" She gets all amped-up when our feeders are the first out in spring and we get six to eight in at a time... Thanks for sharing them!

 

[Dani]

Good lord Al! look at all those humminbirds! That is super cool. I wish I had that many. I might have 4 or 5 here. I see three on occasion at a time as they're chasing each other around away from my feeders.

 

[Rick L]

I showed Karen your hummer photo. Her response? She exclaimed, "That is amazing! I wonder how many flowers were still blooming at that time?" She gets all amped-up when our feeders are the first out in spring and we get six to eight in at a time... Thanks for sharing them!
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Rick

names - what are the odds- I always show the hummingbirds pictures to my wife -also a Karen - who maintains feeders here as well

 

[Tom Scholberg]

Al, Yes it will be a "double dog" opener and I will be careful not to stick my tongue on a flagpole or shoot my eye out. Clever! I do take a camera but the problem is remember to use it which is too bad because pictures last longer than meat. Good luck on your early season. Love the ball pic., my Booker is that single minded.

 

[RLLigman]

I showed Karen your hummer photo. Her response? She exclaimed, "That is amazing! I wonder how many flowers were still blooming at that time?" She gets all amped-up when our feeders are the first out in spring and we get six to eight in at a time... Thanks for sharing them!
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Rick

names - what are the odds- I always show the hummingbirds pictures to my wife -also a Karen - who maintains feeders here as well

So.... Convergence! Highly unlikely? Doppelganger? Hope not, for both our sakes! Kismet? Probably....

 

[Al Hansen]

Rick,
Tell Karen that we have lots of penstemons here. They grow in the wild in the mountainous areas just to our west. After we bought some that is when we saw them all over the place in the wild. Now we collect seeds. Another thing the hummers are the blossoms of the desert willow. I call them the orchid of the southwestern high desert. We probably have at least 20 trees. The last is the ocotillo flowers that they absolutely love.
Al

Oh darn, that's not a flower. Sorry about this mistake picture

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Desert willow blossoms

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Orange trumpet flowers they love, also.

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just for fun

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Ocotillo flowers

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A juvenile blackchinned hummer pondering his next move!

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this little tyke wasn't so lucky. He got way too close to this praying mantis. She left nothing but the skeleton and feathers when she was done.
Check out the size of her abdomen

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[Al Hansen]

Hey Dani,
Glad you liked the pics. I just figured out that in the past three weeks we have gone through about 160 ounces of nectar per day. That is a lot of sugar by the way.

Yesterday while looking at the hummers hanging around the feeders I estimated at least 100 birds.
Al

 

[Al Hansen]

I got a kick out of this post about names. Pretty cool. Rick here is one for your Karen.
Al


Sorry for another mistake.

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An early morning shot

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A female rufous

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[Al Hansen]

Tom, I couldn't resist. Way too tempting!
Al

 

[Al Hansen]

Great shot, Rick. We still have 16 days before our season opens. Thanks for sharing that.
Al

 

[Rick L]

I showed Karen your hummer photo. Her response? She exclaimed, "That is amazing! I wonder how many flowers were still blooming at that time?" She gets all amped-up when our feeders are the first out in spring and we get six to eight in at a time... Thanks for sharing them!
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Rick

names - what are the odds- I always show the hummingbirds pictures to my wife -also a Karen - who maintains feeders here as well

So.... Convergence! Highly unlikely? Doppelganger? Hope not, for both our sakes! Kismit? Probably...



definitely not doppelgangers - you dodged the bullet there

 

[RLLigman]

Al, thanks for sharing that last battery of photos-fabulous shots, particularly the hummer/mantis series. Karen asked that I tell you she is in awe of your talents with a camera!

 

[Al Hansen]

Thanks for those comments. I am just happy that they were enjoyed since I have so much fun with my camera in hand. Love those challenges.

At the moment I'm just glad that we have been buying our 10 pound bags of sugar from Costco. The hummers are consuming nectar close to two gallons a day now. It is short lived because as the night time temps continue to drop, once they hit the high 50sF they are out of here except for the Broad-tailed and Black-chinned varieties who stick it out into the beginning of Oct.
Al


Still can't help but dream of this right now. Getting closer to the 12th.

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