Juniper walks up the Round Top trail (the main “dome” is to the right) while Flash imitates a mountain goat at far right. Seeing her coat gleaming like a beacon is what originally alerted me to the horses being there in the first place, when a higher sun was still illuminating the little “cove” in the middle ground.
The trail goes on up to what I call “the bench,” which provides a nice little viewpoint, then on across/up that ridge that looks horizontal (I assure you that it’s not) to the top.
I’ve found manure piles up the ridge and on top, but this is the first time I’ve seen any horses up there!
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.
Beautiful, beautiful, gorgeous evening with Terra and the rest of the band far in the southeastern part of Spring Creek Basin. The ponies are just about shed out, but there’s still some winter hair clinging in place on some.
Just between Sunday and Tuesday, the number of plants I saw probably doubled (which isn’t saying much as I didn’t see many on Sunday). But they’re definitely budding and blooming and raising their blossoms (I don’t really know the nomenclature for blooming or blossoming plants?), and the bees (and ants) are taking notice.
Proudest moment about the above pic? I think I actually have a catchlight in the bee’s eye. 🙂
The bee, by the way, was huge, probably at least the size of my middle finger’s middle knuckle.
I always forget how BRIGHT and vibrant they are … until the next spring rolls around and they blaze with color in the basin’s brown ground and green sage (and greasewood and shadscale and sage and other bits). Wildflowers this year are tiny and hugging the ground. The first prince’s plumes have started to stand tall … always a good sign.
The mustangs are chasing the growing green things (fairly limited this year) all over the basin, and you never know where they’re going to show up. I hiked way out on a hill in the southern part of the basin on a just-to-see mission, and it wasn’t until I turned around to head back that I spotted one horse in a little drainage. A little investigation soon found the band, tucked out of sight below another little hill, but they – like all the bands – are not interested in anything but *the green*, so the best thing to do is to sit quietly and wait for them to notice other band members coming over another little hill then snap the moment when they’re looking and/or shifting position toward another green patch. 🙂
You can see the dusty haze on the horizon toward Utah, but with the soft light, it was another lovely evening in Spring Creek Basin with Temple and her family. And any time with the mustangs is the best time.
Cassidy Rain, never one to get too close (or allow closeness) moseys downhill toward a little ridge, the better to hide behind. … But isn’t she soooo lovely. 🙂
Very muddy Sundance, with the rest of his band, looks for green bits among the sage and shadscale. It IS coming up, slowly but surely.
There’s a pond fairly nearby where I found them that evening, and I hope that’s where he’s taking advantage of both the water and mud. It’s the only pond that has water currently in Spring Creek Basin.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 