My brother, Jeff, is 50 years old today! He’s not big on birthdays (a trait we share), but 50 is a big milestone, and because this is my blog, I get to mark it.
Happy big 5-oh, little brother! 🙂
(Pic is of Buckeye, himself a younger brother and a particular favorite of mine. :))
I love meadowlarks. Ever since I lived in Montana and became aware of their distinctive liquid-gold trill of a spring song, I’ve loved these bright little birds. They also practically beg to be photographed! And yet, I am *not* a bird photographer, and though they’re bright, they’re also fast! I got this pic, another pic, then this pic:
And the next-to-last pic was one where I cut off the bird’s beak as s/he flew … and then one of the empty post. 🙂
I love meadowlarks. 🙂
(These pix were taken from my Jeep, through my passenger window. I heard its trill first, then spotted it on the fence post as I drove into Spring Creek Basin.)
As I was leaving the basin a couple of days ago, horses were just above the road near the western boundary. Maiku prepared to defend his band (he’s a lieutenant), looking quite handsome in the process.
Water drips from Dundee’s chin while she watches her bandmates heading to water.
It’s so great to get rain. The ground has dried very quickly, but the moisture is always good.
It MUST be spring – the prince’s plume is flowering. 🙂
And the bees also are very happy about that:
And … drum roll, please … WE GOT RAIN LAST NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first actual rain – and yes, the ground got more-than-damp wet – since April 6. It will put some water in the catchments and give the vegetation a nice, lovely drink of moisture.
*Relief*. 🙂
How lucky was I to be in the right place at the right time as Buckeye’s band and another band converged on their way to drink at Spring Creek canyon? 🙂
Wily Chipeta tried her best to skunk me on this pic.
The view and the *light* on the view (McKenna Peak and Temple Butte) was SO pretty that I sat down in a shallow little drainage and waited for the band to mosey their way down the little slope they were on, right through that view.
Chipeta, of course, was the very last, after most everybody had grazed their way through with heads down and semi-hidden by the grass. Just as she went through my viewfinder – and I had to hold the camera vertical to get all the view within the frame – she picked up her pace, and I thought for sure I’d have a blurry mess. … But nope; gotcha, beauty. 🙂
As I was heading out of Spring Creek Basin the other evening, after the sun had set into a low cloud bank, I came upon Cassidy Rain and her band grazing just below the road. She ignored me until I was inching by her in the Jeep … and then she looked up! Fortunately my camera was still out of its pack, and I lifted and eyeballed and hit the shutter. She didn’t stop chewing while she eyeballed me back, and I got a couple of fairly decent portraits of the muddy girl.
The mustangs weren’t in cooperative locations for catching the rising moon, so I tried a bit different place. I still caught it a bit later than I’d hoped, but with Temple Butte on the left and Brumley Point on the right, Groundhog Mountain in the background and part of Spring Creek Basin in the middle ground … it worked out all right. 🙂
That’s part of Disappointment Road at lower right.
By the time I realized the nearly-full moon was rising, it was well up.
Still gorgeous!
(Not bad for cell-phone pix, eh?)
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 