Our skies have returned to Colorado-blue (is that a color on the paint-chip charts? it should be) from the smoky conditions. That’s good for us … and I hope it’s good for firefighters and community members who are battling fires in their own home ranges.
This pic of Winona was too pastel-pretty to pass up sharing.
Hot.
Smoky.
Smoky.
Hot.
Summer in Southwest Colorado (and/or anywhere in the West).
Beautiful Seneca was as surprised to see me as I was to see her!
I was photographing another band when all of a sudden their heads went up, all attention on a small drainage behind us. And there came a band!
Great timing. 🙂
No blondie human could be as gorgeous as our Rowan!
Storm and his band have been a bit more accessible again this summer, like last summer, and I’ve enjoyed spending some time with them. Storm hasn’t given me a lot of photographable moments, though, mainly grazing peacefully along with his mares (which is wonderful for me … but not really share-able :)).
It was during a recent evening when the eastern side of the basin lit up with amazing light just at the end of day while the western sky held a brief glow of gold-rimmed red clouds – and Storm head-down in a patch of yummy grass, in the shadowed lee of a small hill – that I remembered some pix I’d taken of him previously that I’d never posted.
So this pic isn’t recent (it’s from the beginning of June, before the rain), but my beautiful boy deserves to be seen. He was relaxed-alert watching the world from his hip-cocked perch on the side of a hill, his mares napping above him. I didn’t have the best angle from my own perch on the rounding-away side of the small hill, but take please take my word for it: It was *beautiful* – the mustang, the view, the day.
Can’t ask for much more than that … and the means to share it.
When I saw the giant hole at the side of the road as I passed, one of my favorite bands of mustangs just ahead, I thought, “hm … badger opened that hole.” And I didn’t think much more about it.
Until I stopped several yards away and was dithering around getting my camera out of my pack and ready to aim at ponies.
And I saw the low-to-the-ground scurrying grey-and-black-and-white critter. … !
It got to its hole before I got my camera to my eye, but then it proved to be wonderfully curious!
Badgers have quite a ferocious reputation, so I was glad of my long lens. I took several pix from different angles, and it watched me calmly from the safety of its burrow. Badgers commonly dig into the burrows of ground squirrels and prairie dogs to get at the critters inside (not so safe for them, eh?). See that pile of dirt? All fresh. I spent a few minutes with it, then moseyed on to finish the evening with mustangs.
So cool. 🙂
Our BLM range tech, Laura Heaton, was out in Spring Creek Basin last week doing some utilization (of vegetation) monitoring with her lovely assistant, Roo!
Do you see how GREEN it is?! We both think the grass is growing inches per day. It’s awesome to have finally gotten rain (now a stretch of hot, dry days looms).
I mean, wow, right? Does anyone doubt this latest proof of magic in Disappointment Valley (or on planet Earth?)? 🙂 That was absolutely as wide as my cell-phone camera could go; the rainbow was (seemed to be) right above me.
As usual, the rain forming the prism of the rainbows fell in the atmosphere, but not much actually made it to Earth.
And after sunset, this was the storm to the southeast. Only in a video clip was I able to catch the lightning bolts. Time between first and third photo: about an hour and 15 minutes. (And that rain didn’t make it to my location, either. I’m not greedy, but it’s still annoying to have rain *that close*! :))
I lovelovelove how the rosy last light of day on McKenna Peak and Temple Butte complements Rowan’s golden coat so perfectly.
A recent selection of post-rain images:
The water trough at the main/original water catchment is full again. The tank has about 3 feet of water. It has been mostly dry with a poor winter and without much rain.
Post-rain grass growth! If you live east of the Rockies and in places where it, you know, rains, this might look sparse. … To us, it looks lush and divine! And I will tell you, the mustangs are going after it with gusto!
Do you see the pillar of light? The clouds were heavy the last part of the day (and they and the breeze dropped the mercury comfortably), but then, at THE very end of the day, the sun found a window, and it lit up the basin.
Did you think I was exaggerating? 🙂 As usual, the pic doesn’t do justice to the colors of reality.
I couldn’t decide between the really long, wide view or the slightly zoomed-in view, so you get both. 🙂
Just another glorious day in Spring Creek Basin. I promise, pix of ponies are on the way.
P.S. Happy July. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 