mg1744's photos with the keyword: Fort Collins

Was out taking some landscape shots in the Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area when I noticed some of the ever present prairie dogs sunning themselves outside their burrows. After I took a few frames they suddenly disappeared. Panned around a little with the camera and sure enough along came Mr. Coyote, I think he was traveling, you can see the faint trace of an animal track just behind him, rather than seriously hunting, but he did investigate a couple of the prairie dog burrows as he passed through. Out of the frame to the right a couple of hundred yards (200m) up on the next ridge is the first subdivision on the south edge of Fort Collins; hope everyone took their pets in for the night. View is generally to the west.

Doing my thing on a sunny spring day. View is down and to the west.

Union Pacific locomotive #5905 is a General Electric model C44ACCTE (AC4400CW) unit delivered on January 8, 2003. This type of diesel-electric unit has a power output of 4400 horsepower and is equipped with C-C trucks (three powered axles on two identical trucks. The locomotive weighs 426,000 pounds (193,000 kg) with a fuel capacity of 5,000 gallons (19,000l) and is ideally suited to long, heavy haul applications. In this case the train is crossing the Cache la Poudre River at Fort Collins heading north, likely to the coalfields in Wyoming. I know from personal experience that such trains average between 75 and 100 cars in length. View is to the southwest. Submitted to the January, 2018 Contest Without Prize, theme "Lokomotiven (Locomotives)" as entry #8.

Somewhat of a rarity, a supermoon, sometimes referred to as a giant moon, occurs when a full moon's elliptical orbit coincidentally passes as close as physically possible to the earth (technically referred to as a perigee syzygy), thus causing the moon to appear significantly bigger than normal especially immediately after rising or before setting. This means that the moon appears to be about 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter at these times. The red cast is also most prominent at these times and results from the reflected sunlight from the moon being refracted by the earth's atmosphere which is thickest, if you will, when the moon is at the lowest angles relative to the earth. Even more appropriate in this case since the supermoon happens on New Years Day and here was 99.9 percent full at moon rise. View is to the ENE.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL IPERNITY !!! This neighborhood Christmas decoration is anchored in the front yard of a home almost at the sidewalk and stretches up and back to the peak of the roof gable about 30 feet (10m). The dimmed lights in the second floor windows are just visible behind the middle of the tree. View is to the north. A very similar photo was previously posted here. I found it to be unsatisfactory because of an uneven black background; I had not removed all the lights and shadows from the house behind the decoration. However, I had already submitted the previous photo to the December, 2017 Contest Without Prize, theme "Christmas creations / sceneries" as entry #23. After the conclusion of the contest I replaced that photo with one above.

A Farmall 200 and Allis-Chalmers tractors sit abandoned in a small field on the edge of Fort Collins.

Enjoying four tasters of the product in the taproom at New Belgium Brewery. Part of the brewery works are just visible through the windows. Picture title names the four brews from left to right.

Went out to take a sunrise photo on a foggy morning and found this scene more to my liking. The cottonwood tree at the right of the frame is in the bottoms of Fossil Creek which meanders through this meadow from right to left. You would think that I am out on the prairie in the middle of nowhere, but this landscape is in the Fossil Creek Wetlands Natural Area which is maintained by the City of Fort Collins. As such it is surrounded by suburbia, shrouded in the fog on the ridgeline just visible across the center of the frame, at the south end of the city. View is to the south with the sunrise at the left of the frame. Submitted to the December, 2016 Contest Without Prize, theme "Tranquility" as entry #30 with the title just "Morning Mist". Also, previously posted in Panoramio @ www.panoramio.com/photo/113622577 with the title "Autumn Fog" and submitted to the 2014 November CFP contest @ groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/panoramio-romanian/ymt3EapQQys%5B51-75%5D as entry #20 and to the 2016 July TTT contest @ groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/panoramio-games-competitions/lyFK90SmTo0%5B1-25%5D as entry #93.