Catching the runners

26 01 2026

The snow Saturday morning lured me into Spring Creek Basin twice that day. The first time was shortly after sunrise, and while the mustangs were frustratingly far from any accessible areas, the pronghorns were fascinatingly cooperative! While that sort of looks like a giant cave opening behind them, that’s the north rim of Spring Creek canyon (viewed from the southeastish). The pic of Chipeta yesterday was taken much later in the day; compare the melting that had been at work.

Pronghorns (not actually antelope) are North America’s fastest land mammals. Here, they were just moseying. When they *really* run, they are FAST!

They’re more sprinters than marathon runners … and thankfully for me and my camera, they’re wonderfully curious. 🙂

(Note that the landscape doesn’t look like that AT ALL by this morning (or even by yesterday morning). It was cold (high of 34F?), but in Colorado, sunlight means even more than temperature.)





Native pinto

25 01 2026

Who better than a pinto girl to show off our snow … and how much had already melted by late afternoon?

Thanks, Chipeta. We appreciate your lovely cooperation!

Fascinating mix of snow on the ground and still on some tree branches while south-facing slopes have nearly all slurped up all that snowy-good moisture (despite the lack of sunshine most of the day). We got maybe an inch … 2 max. It was melting while it was falling. Eh. We’re desperate for ANY moisture. I think the temp hit 40F. … The forecasters claim this morning’s low temp will be 7 or thereabouts. Yeesh. But it’ll keep some of that snow on the ground and soaking in slowly, under another full-blue Colorado sky.





Ears up, everyone!

24 01 2026

Elk attention-getter squeaky toy now available online!

Juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust kidding. 🙂 I didn’t use any squeaky toy or other artificial attractant. They were immediately west of the west boundary entrance to/from Spring Creek Basin, and clearly, I was the most fascinating thing they’d seen all day!

Note Ms. Grumpypants in the middle with the broken ear? I could see even at a distance that something was odd with her ear. Even zooming in, I’m not sure why she has the white hair at the base of each ear.

(If something looks odd about the font, I apologize. It looks different from usual, but in the drafting mode, I can’t tell exactly what (a serif font as opposed to sans serif?), and I’m not sure whether it’s something I did or WordPress doing another one of its odd “updates.”)





On the upside

23 01 2026

The weather is *starting* to look as though it’s changing, hopefully for the positive, which is – *crossing everything that can be crossed* – “AM snow showers” Saturday. The percentage chance drops a bit more every time I look at the forecast, but it’s still there. … Surely that means something??

All dances, wishes, prayers and hopes accepted!





Right all right

22 01 2026

Kestrel.

Blue sky.

Temple Butte.

Not much more required. 🙂





Catching up

21 01 2026

Just as I reached the top of the hill, Buckeye’s band was approaching the trail, about to head down to water. Rowan was waiting for Aiyanna and Buckeye to catch up, and Dundee already had gone ahead.

Mustangs are mostly on the same page, but there are always the ones who lag. 🙂





Eagle on a stick

20 01 2026

You don’t mind more eagle pix, do you?? 🙂

I saw TWO bald eagles that day (about a week ago now), as well as two golden eagles or juvenile bald eagles; I didn’t have my binoculars then, and I couldn’t tell from a distance. When I went back much later with my big gun (as opposed to my wimpy phone), one bald eagle was in that tree, which seems to be the favorite tree (and why not, with that perfect stick, err, branch?).

Non-moisture-bearing clouds were overhead, but in the distance, a bit of sunlight was shining on Utah’s La Sal Mountains. Bit of a messy cottonwood foreground, but you get the idea. 🙂 (Who spotted the raven doing a photobomb flyby in the middle background?)

This is a strange image, I know, but I was zoomed in as I initially scrolled through the pix on the computer (culling out-of-focus ones), and when this pic came up, it was cropped like that, and I liked it. 🙂 To each, their own, eh?

A more typical eagle-launch image. Too bad s/he flew away from me, but it was warm-ish, critters were out, and eagle had other fish to fry (not in dry Disappointment Creek, though) and things to do!

Wow, do I love seeing them. 🙂

(The title is a reference to a phrase I sometimes see about “bird-on-a-stick” pix: portrait shots of birds perched on branches. As a non-bird photographer, I figure I haven’t yet gotten bored with shooting birds or raptors of any kind on sticks or branches of any kind!)





Camo shade

19 01 2026

Pretty Aiyanna stopped in just the right place to show off the big, complementarily colored (!) boulders at the base of Filly Peak on New Year’s Day. … Notice the piñon tree growing between the two boulders behind her. It doesn’t look super healthy, but that’s probably more the ongoing drought than having sprouted up between two giant sandstones. Still, pretty cool … and it makes you (OK, at least me) wonder about the eons of history there.





Find-her

18 01 2026

I tell Chipeta all the time (well, when I’m with her) that she really can’t hide. She’s too much of a standout!

Plus, she’s the only pinto in her band of greys. 🙂

It doesn’t stop her from trying (to hide) … and it doesn’t stop me from trying to get creative in “finding” her!





Streaked

17 01 2026

Oh, I just adore this little guy.

None of the pintos are very big (even in comparison to the other not-so-big mustangs), but they all have big personalities (and not just the pintos!).