A new trail! Where does it lead?

The Rio Grande, of course. View looking to the northeast.

View looking south.

Heading back.

The trail is not as well travelled continuing South.

Silver, Marble, Lola and Sasha

I was standing in a clearing in the bosque photographing a Red-tailed Hawk circling over head, when a flock of cranes flew under the hawk. The Hawk circled fairly close to the cranes and then flew south. Surprisingly, a group of cranes made an about face and started following the hawk. The hawk gained altitude and disappeared behind the cottonwoods with the peloton of cranes not far behind. I could not see what eventually happened with the chase — the bosque canopy blocked my view to the south — but I presume the hawk and cranes eventually went their separate ways without any physical altercation.

As temperatures drop into the single digits on the Fahrenheit scale, kitty prints are frosted. Although, it has been so dry that the frost is lightly scattered crystals in most surfaces. 

Santa: "Hmmm! I'll have to think about that."   Bruce: "I'm having my doubts."

The body clips I ordered for Laurie's Mazdaspeed 3 from China, and the new "Chile Capital of the World" license plate I ordered for my Mazda RX-8 were delivered today. Laurie caught the rocker panel skirt on a parking bumper that was sticking out in the road and it broke most of the fastening clips that hold the skirt on. I tried to get clips in town, but parts stores don't carry most body parts for Mazda because Mazda is a low production car company compared to Toyota, Honda and American car producers. Mazda produces models in lots of tens of thousands a year as compared to the millions of models produced by most other car manufactures. I located the clips from Mazda and one or two specialty parts companies on-line, but they wanted $4 to $8 per clip, so a dozen clips would have cost me $48 to $96. I found a bag of 50 clips from a seller in China for a grand total of $1.86 with shipping. I ordered the clips on November 11th, so it took twenty six days by China Post to get to me. It's not Amazon Prime, but it was very reasonable. I have bought several items from China and Japan on eBay, and the quality, service and shipping have always been reasonable.

I got on-line last week to renew the registration on my Mazda RX-8, and the MVD website suggested I upgrade to a "Chile Capital of the World" license plate for only $6.50. The MVD must be taking lessons from Amazon. I love the red and green chile license plate design, so of course I had to go for it. By changing license plates, I get a month registration for the $6.50 and then I will renew for two years at the end of the month. Excellent deal.

Behind ripples, branches grab 
Super moon in liquid clouds
Breaks the hold, trees and pother
Sets the night alight

Dawn light breaks which darkness holds 
branches grab at morning light
Crane calls break on silent breeze
Solo, one, then two, then more

Super moon falls to the west
Set to Face a rising sun
Dawn blushes in cloud laced gown
Dendrite reaches for the sky

CranesCranes flying, landing and calling out to each other

This video shows Sandhill Cranes standing in a field, more cranes flying in and circling around, with a few cranes landing. A small flock of Snow Geese give a cameo performance taking flight from the orchard in the middle of the video. You can hear the cranes' unique voices as they announce their arrival or voice their opinions about the goings on in the field and orchard.

Sasha (bottom), Silver (middle), Lola (top) making like a packaged deal.