Merlin couldn’t identify the teeny little bird, but it might be some kind of sparrow (if you know, let me know!). It’s standing at the top of the “critter ladder” at the end of a water-catchment trough. It first looked at the water from the other end of the trough, then across from the horses, then fluttered over to this end and disappeared. Although I couldn’t see it from my distance away, I knew it was getting to the water level from the specifically placed critter ladder (it’s really more like a ramp with a sort of mesh over it for little toes to grip).
You’ll remember the pic from a few posts ago of Alegre and Maia, with the butt of Terra at the edge. Here’s one with Terra and Alegre and Maia and one of their stallions. Aren’t they the lucky gals. 🙂
I was out with another BLM person this particular day last week, doing something kinda (really) cool (more on that next week), and we were just above to leave when I saw a group of horses (there are about three bands) walking along a ridge between us and McKenna Peak and Temple Butte. Hopefully, I’ll never pass up the chance to get that pic: wild ponies in a big, wild land.
The full moon rising over Temple Butte, from the base of Round Top in Spring Creek Basin.
The sun had set by the time the moon rose, and I wish I knew all the techy bits to get the moon exposed correctly and Temple Butte exposed correctly, but you’ll have to take my word for it: It was glorious (as it always is).
While most of this image looks black, that’s actually Temple Butte beneath the rising full moon! 🙂 And the eclipse was already starting when the moon rose over Spring Creek Basin.
You can really see the progression of the shadow taking over in the above two pix. All of the above images were taken from the base of Round Top in Spring Creek Basin. Then, I figured I should head out of the basin while the moon and Earth were doing their thing … and I’d pick it up from farther out in Disappointment Valley as the peak of the eclipse neared.
This was taken at 9:55 p.m.
And this was taken at 10:20 p.m. The “peak” of the eclipse for us in Southwest Colorado was at 10:12 p.m.
Just cool. 🙂 I hope you all got to see it, wherever you live!
A couple of bands were together the other evening when I was leaving Spring Creek Basin, and with such a glorious (dry) sky, it was a no-brainer to stop and hit the shutter button on the phone’s camera a few times. 🙂
*****
Sing with the angels, Dolly Parton. You are a national treasure.
Temple on a dramatic evening a couple of nights ago. A curtain of rain was passing to the northwest over or in front of (our Colorado side of) Utah’s La Sal Mountains.
Shafts of sunlight were finding the mountains as the rain edged past to the north.
Whatever land was getting that glorious rainfall under the path of the curtain is fortunate, indeed. For our part of Disappointment Valley, after a crazy “front” of wind, rain finally came briefly after dark. Still not much, but it was wonderful while it lasted.
I even managed to capture a tiny bolt of lightning in the clouds. The ponies were not at all concerned, but shortly after, I hit the road!
Promising … but not making much good on its promise. The northeastern and maybe eastern portions of Spring Creek Basin (including at least one water catchment) got enough rain to make the ground damp for a little while, so that’s fortunate.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 