There are no mustangs in this post (crazy, I know, with a title like that), but mustangs were SEEN.
This, my friends and fans of wild things and wild places, is a burrowing owl. Possibly one of THE – I’m gonna say (type) it – *cutest* birds on the planet. You know how I adore kestrels. … I see them all the time. But burrowing owls?!?!?!?! This might be the third I’ve ever seen in Disappointment Valley.
Huge shout-out to friend Mary, who not only was driving but spotted this marvelous beauty along the road. She casually asked if I’d seen the owl – she thought it was an owl? – and obliged my horizon-gazing self by backing up to where – sure enough – this burrowing owl was standing on a burrow (possibly/likely previously the home of a prairie dog family) right alongside the road. The owl him/herself (?) obliged us by being its beautiful, gorgeous, adorable self so we could take a minute or two’s worth of photos before driving on to not disturb its … burrow guarding? We never saw another bird, and this one seemed pretty comfortable.
Who needs opposable thumbs when one has feet/talons perfectly capable of gripping dinner? (I think this might be a carpenterworm? Though it’s much earlier than I’ve ever seen them. Eat all you want, friend owl!)
Like … WOWOWOWOWOWOWOW! 🙂
And as if that weren’t enough, this was the end-of-day, sunset-lit, alien-mothership/stormcell cloud (one or the other … right?!) visible over upper Disappointment Valley just beyond (?) Spring Creek Basin:
Because … our planet Earth really is that gorgeous. 🙂
Notes: Owl pix taken with a 600mm lens from inside a vehicle. Crazy storm-cloud pic (and yes, the rest of the sky was basically blue and nearly clear) taken with my phone because a long-mustang-owl lens just could not capture the entirety of the above scene. Very last light of day. I sized the image and gave it a touch of sharpening, but otherwise, that is straight out of the camera, err, phone.
It really was a WOW kinda day. 🙂 “*Grateful*” doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel about this glorious little part of our great, wide, wild, wonderful world.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 
The owl pics are super – and cute is right!
The sky? So beautiful – hard to believe its real.
The burrowing owl sighting was among the highlights of my year (so far?!), and that sky. … It just kept getting better as the sun sank and the light became brilliant. It was real, all right. I wouldn’t even know how to make it fake!
Absolutely stunning photos, TJ! I didn’t know we had burrowing ..owls. Cool! And that pink squall with its perfect mother ship cloud is just amazing. It WAS a “wow” kind of day out there and I’m so grateful you shared it with us!
I can remember two other sightings … which makes this little guy/gal fairly rare. Though I’m not entirely sure whether we don’t have many … or I just don’t see many of the ones that are here?! 🙂 That sky was *out of this world*!
What beautiful pictures of the cute little owl and cloud ship! It really looks like something from outer space!
Either the owl or the sky on their own would have been *wow*. … Both on the same day!? 🙂 Magical! I wish now that I’d taken multiple pix with my big camera/lens and “stitched” them together … though I’m not so skilled in Photoshop to really know how to do that!
Doub
🙂
This is really amazing story and experience.. and yes, I will repeate too, WOW! It has many touches that I can connect with beauties, and nature love of humans.. Thank you, Love, nia
So glad you connected with these images of nature’s beauty! 🙂
Me too. Thank you, Love, nia
Tried responding but it was a no go day for WordPress….. these owl photos are unbelievable ! What a sweetheart ! and taken from a vehicle !! Lucky you and lucky owl for finding such a tasty treat !
Hope with this weather you get some more magical clouds 🙂 Raining here again today
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We got wonderful rain yesterday and the day before. Waiting on rain today (the forecast says so; I’m still hoping)!
The owl encounter was so awesome! It’s not still there. … Lots of vehicle traffic last week and through the weekend. Hopefully it found a burrow more to its liking that was farther from a road and quieter!