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).
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. 🙂
I think – I hope – that these pix truly are worth 1,000 (or more!) words … but I’m going to give you a few more anyway. 🙂
This is the east-pocket pond, aptly named as it’s located in Spring Creek Basin’s east pocket. This isn’t the only pond that suddenly has water after Thursday’s tremendous downpour, but it’s the only one of which I have a “before” pic.
“Before” was a little after noon on June 27, a few hours before the four-hour deluge. “After” was about 26 hours later on June 28.
Maybe, if you look closely, you can see a band of greys at far distant left in the pond-now-full pic. Fortunately, the horses have multiple sources of water now. It’s amazing how quickly things change (for the better, in this case!).
Readers of this blog know that I/we have enjoyed a particularly good partnership with our BLM folks for the last nearly decade, in huge part because of rangeland management specialist and Spring Creek Basin herd manager Mike Jensen.
Our PZP program was implemented during the 2011 roundup, before Mike returned to herd manager duties (he was herd manager here first in the early 2000s), but Mike has been an absolutely staunch supporter of the program. It was under Mike’s leadership that we were able to get bait trapping solidified as the capture method of choice (when the time comes), and because of Mike’s dedication to vegetation monitoring, for the 2020 herd management area plan update, we had the data necessary to allow the increase in AML (appropriate management level) from 35 to 65 adult horses to 50 to 80 adult horses. That, combined with the very successful PZP program, has meant an astounding 13 years to date since the last roundup and removal of any Spring Creek Basin mustangs.
Mike is the BLM partner every advocate wishes for and we have been so very fortunate to have.
Under Mike’s leadership, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area is a model that other BLM managers and advocates can aspire to. (That’s not arrogance; that’s pure gratitude.)
As I described in yesterday’s post, last week, Mike and Tres Rios Field Office Manager Derek Padilla came to Spring Creek Basin for the field trip with Colorado Wild Horse Working Group members. I take every opportunity offered to describe Mike’s work ethic, partnership and support of our mustangs to anyone who will listen, but this was the first opportunity for group members and our Colorado advocates to see him in action as he talked about the history of Spring Creek Basin as a herd management area and our accomplishments in both herd management and the projects we’ve completed for the benefit of the mustangs. Naturally, everyone wants a Mike clone for their areas. 🙂
By the time we reached the day’s end goal and turnaround spot – the northwest-valley water catchment we built in 2022 – we were down to our local advocates and a Jeep-full of advocates from the other herds.
And because Mike retires Friday from a long (30 years) career with the Bureau of Land Management, we local advocates wanted to take advantage of the last opportunity we’d likely have Mike in Spring Creek Basin to mark the occasion, wish him well and give him a token of our appreciation.
Left to right: Mike Jensen, Frank Amthor, Tif Rodriguez, Pat Amthor and yours truly.
Thank you, Mike, for being such a champion for wild horse management here in Spring Creek Basin, for being a true partner, for being one of the people I respect most in this world. We wish you well in retirement! Don’t be a stranger. 🙂
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 