Summertime and a Wildlife Mystery

The idyllic spring-summertime is continuing here, with enough rain that the fire danger isn't even an issue yet and the wildflowers are lasting a long time.

New ones are emerging too. This trail will be "Columbine Alley" a little later in the summer but you can see one tall Columbine just above Shyla's head.

The meadow areas remain speckled with yellow, as the Golden Banner wildflowers have gone wild this year.

Shyla decided that she needed to go incognito so that the crazy photographer wouldn't recognize her...

Meanwhile, I've still been struggling with the dang migraines and an unstable shoulder. But, I don't want to miss even a single day when Mother Nature is glowing with beauty like this.

I've also been puzzling out some wildlife situations that my trail cameras have revealed. One situation involves that mountain lion photo that I showed you the other day. It actually involved at least two mountain lions.

Early one morning, I captured a photo of a collared mountain lion in typical territory for these felines. She was alone. I'm assuming this lion was a female because she wasn't leaving scrapes and she's not big or muscular as an adult male lion.

Then, about a mile away, I captured a photo of another collared mountain lion, who I presumed was the same one as from earlier that morning.

This lion was fascinated with the area near a bear-marking tree.

I really hate seeing all the gear attached to these collared lions. I can only imagine that it hinders them.

After rolling around, she departed to the left in the photo.

That night (14 hours later), at the same site, a collared mountain lion appeared again. This makes sense... The above mountain lion could have been going to a nearby "day bed" to sleep for the day. And then, after dark, she could have been heading out to go hunting.

Here's the part that confused me. Another lion was right on the collared lion's heels. This lion was soaked from the rain earlier in the evening, unlike the collared lion. And, he appeared to be smaller - possibly an older kitten. But, if he was the collared lion's kitten, why was he soaked while she wasn't?

This new lion became interested in the scent where the collared lion had rolled earlier that morning.

 Then, he appeared to hurry to catch up with the other lion.

He even "bounded" out of the picture. I've never seen an adult lion use any gait except for a saunter (i.e., an assertive walk). The "bound" really made me think he was young.

I'd be interested to hear any thoughts you might have on this sequence of trail camera photos. I'm so curious to figure out what was going on.

Happy Sunday

Shyla and I are reveling in our morning rides. It's cool, and we're having a blast. She's getting good at "heeling" next to my bike, so I can take her more places than I used to be able to take her.
It truly feels as if every flower in our neck of the woods is blooming right now. The wild roses are going... wild!

Shyla and I are continuing to work on her agility, and she is doing so fabulously. I still need to be right next to her as she negotiates most obstacles, like the teeter-totter and the weave so I can't get photos yet.

Last evening, we saw the "super moon" which is closest to the Earth that it will be all year. The super moon was unfortunately obscured by clouds until well after it rose last evening. However, it was gorgeous as it emerged from the orange clouds

In honor of Black and White Sunday, I am sharing one more attempt at star trails. These trails are from one night on our desert camping trip in May. It's cool how placing the North Star off-center in the photo makes the "circles" look almost eliptical. The part of my star trails that I'm not satisfied with is the obvious gaps within the trails. I plan to try some more soon, with shorter gaps between exposures. However, I still like this one from one of our favorite campsites in Utah.

I captured more very fun bear action the other day - this time involving a cub with big aspirations... I'll share it soon. Happy Sunday!