Desperate Times ...

... call for desperate photos. Lorna and I went to McAllen Nature Center, mostly to see an Audubon Oriole, and then to go to Sprouts Organic Grocery, as an escape from the H.E.B. You just have to live here to understand that. 

We saw the Audubon, but neither of us got a photo. Photos? Here is a Mocker. The Mockingbird is the Texas State Bird. They are everywhere - ubiquitous is the word isn't it? They don't hide. Nobody ever takes photos of Mockingbirds.

Today, I did. Battery? Check. SD card? Check. General settings? Check. This was one of a handful of photos I took checking my camera settings when we first arrived. 

Tiny active olive bird - white wing-bar, large eye, delicate beak. The Ruby-crowned Kinglet is a good bird, not a great bird, but certainly good enough when that is all you have to show. Actually, it is a great little bird. 

Late afternoon, back in the apartment kicking back, playing with the new Sangean table-top radio, looking out the window I noticed the sunset sky. I told Lorna, our designated sunset and landscape photographer, that she should get a shot. She said that it was too full of clutter. She is right of course, this is not a upscale neighborhood. There are barking dogs, poles, posts, cables, antennas and wires. It really does not look this idyllic, but hell, there are palm trees and a tropical sky behind them.

I took it anyway and I'll have to live with the result. - Gunnar.