Rave-licious

6 03 2017

Raven, La Sal Mountains

Divine mustang matron Raven, glowing in sunset light against the snow-covered La Sal Mountains.





Ready

5 03 2017

Hollywood, exclosure, La Sal Mountains

Hollywood is gearing up for vegetation-monitoring season. 🙂

That’s one of our exclosures, used to measure ungrazed – excluded – vegetation inside the small fenced area vs. outside, where the horses and other wildlife graze. Doesn’t look a whole lot different, eh? As part of our management, we monitor the health of Spring Creek Basin’s vegetation, measuring it in a variety of ways. Last year, I helped a couple of interns in the spring, then did more sites in the fall. Our herd manager tallies the results. This year, a team of specialists will visit the basin, and we’re eager to hear what they have to say.

And those are part of the La Sal Mountains in the background. Lots of good snow there!





Oh, that redhead

4 03 2017

Tesora

Pretty red girl Tesora watches the murmuration … and the paparazzo.





Drifting

3 03 2017

Storm

We had winter. And then we had spring. And then, before summer and fall could arrive, winter returned. 🙂





Disappointment murmuration

2 03 2017

Birds over Spring Creek Basin.

As has been observed (audited?), Disappointment Valley is a pretty quiet place – except when the wind is howling, which is fairly often. But on this particular evening, it was only slightly breezy, so when an airborne cacophony reached our ears, we all looked to find the source.

Birds over Spring Creek Basin.

The foreground hills are slightly outside Spring Creek Basin.

Birds over Spring Creek Basin.

This was one flyover that didn’t cause the mustangs to run. 🙂

(Does anyone know what kind of birds are these? The common term might be LBBs – little brown birds. 🙂 Dictionary.com defines a murmuration as the act of murmuring or a flock of – specifically – starlings. ARE these starlings … or just an ordinary flock of (extra)ordinary birds?)





Happy day

1 03 2017

Aurora

Peace reigns in at least one place on the planet.





Stout (lite)

28 02 2017

Comanche

Comanche has been making regular grocery runs this winter. 🙂

In the background are members of another band.





Poser

27 02 2017

Skywalker

Skywalker the stunning. He’s such a poser … in the very best way. 🙂

Those are the rimrocks of Spring Creek canyon in the background.





Itchy

26 02 2017

Storm

Storm found a couple of trees the other day with multiple branches that were good for scratching multiple itches. Check out the lip. 🙂

As you can see from the trunk of the tree and the ground around him, we got a bit of snow. Most of it didn’t last long, but in the upper parts of the basin (and greater Disappointment Valley), there was up to an inch or so of dusty white stuff.

Before our little cold snap, the horses were starting to shed!





A little (lotta) magic

25 02 2017

Rainbow over Temple Butte

Rainbow over Temple Butte

Not many words needed for these images, either. That’s a rainbow right over Temple Butte, guardian of Spring Creek Basin’s southeastern boundary … but as prominent as it is, ALL of Spring Creek Basin.

It has been four years (and a few weeks) since Pati Temple passed away. We miss her every day. And we feel her with us every single day.