A Day out in Nature

The day dawned incredibly cold - so cold that the air freezes your nostrils closed. Shyla is adapting to our winter weather. She chose to lie in the snow at sunrise.

Today, she started a new hobby - eating snow whenever she had the chance. With the air temperature in single digits (Fahrenheit), she rapidly built up a serious snow beard and kept trying to lick it off.

She and I wandered far and wide, with her off-leash romping time increasing so that she is now off-leash for the majority of our morning hike. I'm so happy to see her recovering from her leg fracture. For the most part, I've stopped worrying about her while she runs but I do still keep her on leash for part of our hike.

I was looking for animal tracks during our hike but was distracted by the beauty of the snow on the floor of the aspen groves. Just before the snow, I planted a huge number of Columbine seeds in the aspen groves near our house. So, I see Columbine flowers when I look at the snow around the aspen trunks!

One hazard to "wandering" off-trail is that this land has the remnants of barbed wire fences strewn everywhere. The land near our house used to be owned by a rancher who used the fences when he grazed his cattle. Most of the fences have fallen down, leaving dangerous strands of barbed wire on the ground. Fortunately, Shyla seems to have learned where all these hazards are and goes around them.

As we wandered, we spotted mountain lion tracks walking exactly in my snowbike packed track. The lion tracks weren't that clear and didn't photograph well but they were undoubtedly lion based on their size and shape. That observation made me wonder where the elk herd is grazing. In the winter, our mountain lions seem to follow the herd - so seeing lion tracks made me start watching for elk.

Indeed, a little later in the day, I saw the herd nearby while I rode my snowbike. Yes, I know - I'm doing a lot for someone recovering from pneumonia but my spine hurts too much when I try to be sedentary for a long time (like a person really should do when recovering from something like this).

I didn't have my good camera with me when I saw the elk... but they looked well-fed and their fur coats were thick and luxurious. The herd is huge this year - at least 50% bigger than recent years. Only a fraction of the herd is shown in the next photo.

I also saw a Northern Pygmy Owl perched on the tip-top of a pine tree. I really wished for my good camera then. It's such a small owl (less than 7" tall) that I thought that I was photographing a song bird. It wasn't until I saw the photo on my computer screen that I realized that it was an owl!

I love wandering with Shyla, I love riding my snowbike, and I love observing nature. I can't wait until I can combine all three when Shyla is fully healed!

She's getting there, slowly but surely.