Friday Night Views

 

Was it smoke from distant fires? I began seeing it in Tucson on Thursday, drifting behind the mountains to the north, and the gauzy scarf was still trailing in the sky on Friday evening, visible from Dos Cabezas Pioneer Cemetery.

Cranes Again

 Today I photographed the sandhill cranes at the same place, Twin Lakes outside Willcox, Arizona, but with the snow-capped peaks of the Chiricahua Mountains (instead of buttes and Dos Cabezas Mountains) in the background.

Cranes at rest

Cranes in flight

Cranes against the sun

Masters of the Cochise County Winter Sky

 

They were not airborne when I arrived at Twin Lakes about 1 p.m. but all clustered in the shallow water. The ones that look the most out of focus above are reflections of the standing birds. 

I drove around to another part of the pond, where the background of my photos would be the peaks of Dos Cabezas. And for some reason totally unclear to me, the birds took flight. It was not my presence; there were several other vehicles and even a couple of photographers with tripods. No problem, of course, because they are magnificent in the air. The only trouble I'm having now, as I look at what my camera caught, is deciding which is my favorite -- if I had to pick just one. What do you think? And I'm making it easy! I'm not posting every shot!

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