Sometimes, you never know who’s watching you when you think you’re all alone but the mustangs.
This red fox was a super cool sighting. I’ve seen them absolutely rarely, and I’m not sure I’ve seen (m)any in Spring Creek Basin before. I saw this handsome fellow or gal only because I caught some movement before s/he curled up in a ball to keep a bright eye on me as I was photographing some nearby mustangs.
I love foxes!
I was surprised and delighted to see four (seriously, just four) scarlet gilia flowering plants the other day in Spring Creek Basin.
The Southwest Colorado Wildflowers website says they’re in the phlox family, interestingly. Our phlox are always THE first things to bloom in the spring in the basin. They are very low-growing and small, and very widespread. They usually have white petals, but they can also be a soft pink or even purplish color. I would say that by sight, anyway, they don’t resemble at all their scarlet gilia … cousins? 🙂
I’ve only ever seen scarlet gilia at higher elevations in the San Juan Mountains, but apparently, they’re quite widespread over a variety of elevations, happily for admirers of these pretty, bright red flowers!
All the birds (OK, many) and all the flowers (again, many) and all the mustangs (really) may be my favorites, but when I tell you that collared lizards are my *favorite* lizards, they really are. While I adore horny toads (aka horned lizards), the bright turquoise collareds really are my very favorites of the reptile world (which might not be saying much as I’m really not a reptile kinda gal).
This handsome mister was sunbathing on a very pleasantly warm morning in Disappointment Valley. When I first encountered him, I had only my cell phone, so I returned with the big gun. He was much happier with me at a distance necessary with a long lens. I was happy that it allows me much more precise focusing on his amazing details.
We photographers like the eye-to-eye approach, but I had to rise a little to get that magnificent tail all in view.
After a bit, he thought he’d seek his shelter’s shade (I don’t think he’d been the only occupant; there was quite a lot of room beneath the overhang of his boulder, and I think something else may have done the initial excavation).
And then I appreciated how the shade allowed more details of and around his eye.
What a super handsome little dinosaur! So glad to see this bright fellow – first of the year for me. 🙂
Across the little valley from Flash and his mares, I found these beautiful little flowers. Actually, the sort of yellow and soft-red/pink bud of another plant caught my eye before I found a few clusters with some rather wind-battered blooms open. There were maybe a dozen plants in one area … and nowhere else.
I’m not entirely sure whether I’ve seen these before; the sight of them rings a dim bell … but I know for sure that if I have seen them before, I never identified them. They have the curiously long name of lavenderleaf sundrops! Length aside, what a pretty name!
I found/identified it first through my Southwest Colorado Wildflowers app, where it calls them the above-referenced lavenderleaf sundrops, then went to the website, where it’s identified as Oenothera lavandulifolia (Sundrops).
As I was walking back down the hill, thinking about the pretty flowers, I thought they looked a bit like evening primrose, which are larger and have white petals and are ubiquitous around the high desert (in probably most western states). I must be gaining *some* kind of plant knowledge, as the site identifies them further as being “Onagraceae (Evening Primrose Family)”. 🙂
I especially liked this reference at the very bottom of the information:
“This is such an attractive plant, whether in isolated clusters or in magnificent displays over broad areas. Even the buds have their own special attractiveness.” I had been thinking *exactly* the same thing when I first saw the pretty yellow-and-red buds!
(Of further interest, Lone Mesa State Park is just “over the hill,” so to speak, between Disappointment Valley and Dolores, and Canyons (many canyons) of the Ancients National Monument covers a good bit of the very farthest deserty western and close-to-southernmost corner of the state of Colorado.
From Kathryn Wilder (rancher, mustang advocate and author of Desert Chrome: Water, a Woman, and Wild Horses in the West) comes her second book, this one set in and around Disappointment Valley and Southwest Colorado: The Last Cows: On Ranching, Wonder, and a Woman’s Heart.
The book’s cover – above – has finally been finalized! Eagle-eyed readers of this blog will recognize Temple Butte and McKenna Peak beyond the chute (on Kat’s property) on the left side of the Disappointment Valley horizon. The rimrocks that form Spring Creek Basin’s western boundary can be seen, as well as Filly Peak, immediately to the right of the chute.
Kat herself took the image, and I championed both the photo AND its use as the cover of her new book. You might imagine how thrilled Kat is that the publisher (the University of Nebraska Press’ Bison Books) agreed that THIS image is THE best image to grace the cover of her book. 🙂
This one is about the challenges and wonders of family ranching with a heritage cattle breed called Criollo (not to be confused with the breed of hardy South American horses), which Kat often calls “the mustangs of cattle world” because of their ability to thrive in desert environments (aka, a lot of the American West).
Read more about The Last Cows on Kat’s website: KatWilderWriter. And look for your own copy in November!
Couldn’t pass up an opportunity to share a couple of non-mustang sights from Disappointment Valley last night!
I don’t think I realized until this year how many “favorite” birds I have! I keep thinking “this one is my favorite” until the next one comes along that is *also* my favorite. (Kinda like the mustangs, ALL of which are my favorites!) Western meadowlarks have been one of my top favorites since I lived in Montana and learned to recognize their gorgeous liquid trill of a bright song. I haven’t managed to get a favorite pic yet, but this one was singing his beautiful heart out near the road before and after moonrise.
Speaking of moonrise … !!!
I was expecting it to rise later, and from a different location (yes, I know there are apps for that, and I have one, and it was completely wonky, showing moonrise nearly directly south!), so I was looking for the meadowlark when I caught sight of the rising moon, nearly already fully above the horizon! (It was NOT as far south as the app showed, but it was considerably farther southish than I was expecting. This is fairly southeastish; McKenna Peak and Temple Butte are some distance (photographically, at least) to the left.)
All in all, another gorgeous evening in Spring Creek Basin (and the wind even dropped a bit). 🙂
Skywalker, who has been wandering mostly on his own, sometimes with a couple of bachelor pals, most recently has been back with his former band (still as a bachelor) and buddy (maybe not quite anymore) Sancho.
He seemed fairly grumpy, but I finally caught him looking mildly interested as he looked up from snoozing, saw me sitting nearby … and went back to sleep. Nothing to see here!
But everything to see *there*!
We had rain Sunday and Monday, and we had great storm clouds Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately, we got only a trickle-drip of “rain” from those clouds those days, but the light has been incredible.
Most unfortunately, I had already hiked down from the hill and the band by the time sunset and THIS happened (a couple of hours later):
Those mountains, in all three pix, are southeastern Utah’s La Sal Mountains.
Absolutely, breathtakingly spectacular. Scenery and mustangs brought to you by Mother Nature’s magic. 🙂
Mariah grazes on greens while Mr. and Mrs. Mallard peruse the shoreline for any duck-lightful edibles.
By this time, I had moved to the west end of the pond, on the opposite side from the horses. I really was delighted when the ducks landed where they did. They were still probably 20 or so yards from the horses, most of which ignored the ducks, but a couple of which paid rapt attention!
Our feathered friends Mr. and Mrs. Mallard are still on the one pond in Spring Creek Basin that has water (or they may be a different pair?).
Mrs. (I think) American Wigeon is with them (might also be a different individual), but Mr. Wigeon was not present.
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were practicing their synchonized diving, and this judge awards them a near perfect 9.5! 🙂 (Also, though, I think this illustrates how shallow the pond is, though it still covers a fair bit of area.)
Mustangs had already been to the pond to drink and were lingering over some fresh greens to the left (eastish). Later, the ducks all few off the pond, and Mrs. Wigeon circled and returned to the water, but Mr. and Mrs. Mallard explored terra firma – right near some horses! At least a few of the horses were interested in their little waddling friends, but nobody approached too closely.
Spring Creek Basin and at least part of Disappointment Valley got about half an inch of rain (total) Sunday and Monday. Upper and lower areas of the valley likely got more and less, respectively. We needed it badly, and I think the grasses are already growing, and it’s already a bit more green. *Grateful*!
When I’m taking pix of tiny little things like flowers with my phone, I never know where the focus is going to be, whether I try to make it in a certain place or another certain place. I got the focus on the top flowers in one pic and the bottom flower in the next pic, and I like them both!
The claret cup cacti are now blooming – all of a sudden! – in Spring Creek Basin. They make me so happy. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 