Warning: Extreme cuteness ahead (and no, it’s not any kind of equine).
In Spring Creek Basin the other day, I got some unexpected – and adorable – help when I found and dug up some old, buried beer/liquor bottles (past hunter camp, and yes, they actually *buried* their trash instead of hauling it out!? I’m not sure whether that’s better or worse than the glass bottles they tried to melt away in their stone-ringed fire pit?!).
Forgive the painterly (read: out-of-focus) quality. I was focused on trash pickup, not ponies, so I didn’t have my big gun, just my phone. And this little guy/gal was TINY (how often do you get to capitalize a – literal – tiny word?) – and fast in his/her quest for ever-newer places from which to check me out.
Two brown-glass beer bottles, an old beer can (Budweiser) and a bigger liquor (?) bottle of some kind (being a non-drinker, I don’t know all the lingo). Does it give you an idea how teeny this little baby is? Not counting its very long tail, from snout to back legs, it wasn’t any longer than my pinkie finger – and probably about the same “roundness”!
S/he had me at hello, but I’m completely in love with those dorsal – not stripe(s) – but spots! Stripes are reserved for the very long tail.
And like every other baby: curious, curious, curious!
Are you going crazy over those spots?!
I asked him/her to wait while I schlepped the bottles (and some old cans) down the hill to the road, but it took a while, and on my way back (schlepping my camera and another bag), I spotted – and spent a fair amount of time digging out – an old tent spike, and the critter had moved on to other (more) interesting lizard things.
I’ve shared some pix on the blog before of collared lizards, which I adore in general, but this little baby was my absolute very most bestest favorite!
And because the light was so scrumptious, a bonus pic:
Heavenly angel light over Storm’s band. Storms did rumble across the north that night but didn’t really reach the basin – until the next day. 🙂
On the rain front, let me illustrate the craziness: The past four to six days, we’ve had rain in our forecast, ranging from 30ish percent chances to a whopping (for us) 60 percent. We’ve heard the rumbles and seen the flashes. We’ve enjoyed the cooler weather (80s from 90s-near-100). We’ve marveled at the rain curtains around and beyond the valley.
The day we had the 60 percent chance? We got nada. The day we had zilch to 15 percent? Yeah, it rained. OK, for maybe 20 minutes tops (graupel, too!), but I’m expecting to see more in the rain gauge than the 0.03- to 0.12-inch (no more than a quarter of an inch total) drizzles we’ve gotten out of those “big” rain chances. It actually left puddles instead of a ground that wasn’t even left wet.
I AM GRATEFUL!
How crazy is rain in the (high) desert?
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
I have a friend who lives outside Lucerne Valley in Cal – the temps have been over 100 lately and very high humidity! Its pretty deserty where she lives too. Told her at this point in time, its less humid out here & cooler! Very strange.
Likely to get a lot stranger
I get it. Earlier this year, we were hotter here than my parents’ place in Texas. Reported humidity in Moab with the recent rain? NINETY-SIX percent! In MOAB. Normal just ain’t normal anymore.
Awwww. A baby collared lizard – he is adorable! What great pics of him, TJ! Love your impromptu phone photos. And the cloud and pony photo is absolutely gorgeous! Glad you finally got a little rain. We’ve finally had some good showers, enough to make the ground wet, and we too are grateful. Hoping for more!
I had already dug up some of the bottles, the edges of which had been revealed by erosion, and the more I dug, the more I found. … Then this little baby came out of nowhere (at least to this unobservant human) and darted around and under the bottles I’d already dug up! Oh my gosh, I can’t even describe to you the extreme cuteness, and the pix really don’t do justice. I’ve never seen a baby collared lizard before! We actually got great rain last night and yesterday – total of 0.27 inch for the 24-hour period. Like, WOW. I am super grateful this morning. I hope it was VERY widespread.
Cute and colorful little lizard, TJ! He obviously liked you because he posed for your pics … 😁 And what a spectacular photo of the mustangs under heavenly light! Truly divine, TJ! When you witness a sight like that you just have to stand in silent awe of God’s creation. 🙂
Praying the basin gets some good soaking rain soon! 🙏🏻
Oh, yes! S/he was extremely curious and let me loom overhead numerous times to try to get pix on its various perches. We get some spectacular light out here, and I love those rays of light from the heavens. The same as under rainbows, mustangs are the treasure below. 🙂 We got a great couple of rains yesterday/last night. I am excited to see later what rain the basin got!
Thanks for the pictures of the little lizard! He or she is beyond cute! Hope rain is coming soon!
That baby lizard was just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen! 🙂 We got some fabulous rain yesterday/last night. I can’t wait to see the changes in the basin.
Wonderful photos. Even the horses 😉
Ha. 🙂 I’m fresh back from a journey to the basin – WATER GALORE. I so love my home. 🙂
We humans marvel at gorgeous skies like that, but the Mustangs certainly seem to take it in stride 🙂
You know, I so often wonder, when I catch one of them looking off across the landscape, whether they’re admiring the view or just looking for things of interest and/or danger. I’m so happy to be able to admire them both. 🙂
Sooo cute ! ❤️
The absolute cutest! 🙂