It’s a thrill for me every spring when I encounter a group of long-billed curlew, which I had the pleasure of finding Saturday alongside the highway north of Daniel, Wyoming.They are beautiful and graceful birds, but these guys sure had dirty bills and feet from plodding along in the mud, poking for treasures. A little …
Tag: rural life
Dancing for the joy of spring
Had to haul our last load of hay from our friend’s ranch on Sunday. It was very overcast and the ranch is ancient and captivating. These sandhill cranes were in the fields, and I’m sure they were dancing for the sheer joy of spring, rather than simply practicing their mating dances they will soon be …
Riches
Yumm. On Friday, husband Jim had to make a run to Farson for some small hay bales to use to make a den for a pregnant livestock guardian dog (we feed big bales to the sheep). Our friend and beekeeper Jim Hodder made us a great trade – one of my wolf books for a …
Beauty, and its opposite
Many of the most pleasant parts of my day involve encounters lasting only a few seconds, and sometimes as long as a few minutes, but they all involve beauty found in nature. The snowy grouse (Greater Sage Grouse) were out nibbling on sage along the Wind River Front near Boulder while we were hauling hay. …
The mark of the cross
There are plenty of legends and stories about what wonderful and loyal companions burros make – miners and shepherds of long ago talked to their beasts of burden and treated them like old friends, which they often became. I’m going to venture into new territory here and share a story about the cross mark on …
Things to smile about
After depressing myself with yesterday’s post about eagles, I decided I’d better share some better news. Remember the seven pronghorn antelope fawns I photographed a few weeks ago? They are really growing. Here are five babies from the same meadow, taken earlier this week. That same morning, I saw this cottontail at a gravel pit …
Why I have Been Busy
(In addition to paying (I hope) work:) Growing a bird from a fuzzball to an almost real bird: Growing a pup: Teaching the pup about birds: The bird (female3/4 Barb 1/4 Taita) is a natural chatterbox; not a food screamer– just vocal. Names have been selected by friends from all along the Barbary’s vast range; …
Wet season delights
It’s rained here almost every afternoon for a month, making big changes to our range, which has suffered from 10 years of drought. Jim and I had to look these birds up in the bird book because we’ve never seen them in the hay meadow before. They are Wilson’s phalaropes. It has a peculiar way …
Cuddle
I went down this morning with a flu bug, so was negligent in getting all my chores done. I swear this happened because I drove to town and went to the grocery store, which was packed full of people on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. So husband Jim did the early check of the …
Blue angel?
Jim and I sat down in our living room late this afternoon for a break from the lambing ground and chores, leaving the front door standing wide open so the dogs could wander in and out at will. As we relaxed and talked, a male bluebird came in and sat atop the door, looking around …