A Thirsty and Limping Mountain Lion

Another mountain lion visited a water hole in front of my trail camera. He visited twice. The first time was in the wee hours of the morning.

The second visit to the water hole was one week later during daylight!

He looked very strong and noble.

He took a very long drink of cool and clean water. Then, he started to walk away, and I saw that he had a serious limp. The water hole has a small stream feeding it, and he had to step over it as he departed. You'll see him limp as he crossed the stream, clearly protecting his left hind limb.

I hope that he's okay. Even a week without being able to kill prey like deer is serious for a mountain lion.

Here's the video, which you can watch here or at Youtube.

Silhouette Sunday

Sunset silhouettes of Shyla sum up so much of what I love in our world. The sky, the colors, the solitude...

...and, of course, Shyla.

Silly Saturday

I'm getting addicted to silliness on Saturdays!

Recently, our black dog has been making the craziest faces when trying to snarf treats out of the air.

I love how his eyes open so wide as the treat approaches!

Flower Friday - The Changing of the Guard

New flowers are shining in our neck of the woods.This is a "Locoweed" with yellow flowers behind it.

Shyla smiled as she ran through Locoweed.

Locoweed is almost always covered in bees. It must have lots of nectar!

I found another new bloomer, an extremely rare flower. Wood Lilies are rarely seen, and I found three in one aspen grove.

Happy Flower Friday!

Feisty Flycatchers

I am thankful today for a pair of Cordillaren Flycatchers who have delighted me this summer. They have a nest under our deck, and the parents hang out either on the nest or on nearby branches. I watch them with great joy when I'm on the deck.

They're small birds but they call loudly to each other throughout the day and even into the night while nesting.

They literally are "flycatchers". They flit away from a branch and snag a bug in mid-air regularly. During nesting season, they don't just swallow the bug. They take it to their chicks when they think that I'm not looking. This parent has a fly in his beak.

They don't seem to ever hunt flies perched on flowers, which is surprising to me. They specialize in bugs that are flying. This bug would be fair game while flying from one flower to another.

We are nearing the end of their nesting season, and I am so grateful to have had another season of watching these incredible birds build a nest, lay eggs, feed their young, and finally lead their young away from the nest.

It seems miraculous to me every single year!

Wordless Wednesday

So much that I love is in this photo.

Mountain Lion at a Water Hole

I captured a couple of clips of a mountain lion, perhaps the mother from the trio that we saw recently, at a water hole. First, she drank, and then she licked her giant paw, before sauntering away from the water.

Here she is on a trail near the water hole.

And here is the video of her at the water hole. I hope that you enjoy the short video, either here or at Youtube.

Black Dog Sunday

We appreciate every day that R can run through the flowers after all that he's been through!

For all his life, his ears have gone crazy when he gallops.

We sometimes call him the "flying nun".

We get the feeling that R also appreciates that he's running without serious pain for the first time in many years. We still do physical therapy with him every day to keep his elbow stabilizing muscles strong.
We love our Black Dog!

Silly Saturday

The treat approaches...

Shyla's mouth starts to open.

And she snarfs it!

Happy Silly Saturday!

Columbines on Flower Friday

One more Flower Friday will focus on our Columbines. They are covering the floors of aspen groves in prolific numbers. I adore this time of year!

Here is a Columbine with the beauty of a blue sky and green aspen leaves behind it.

I love seeing sweet Shyla next to Columbines.

I love summertime!

Thankful Thursday

This photo sums up so much for which I am thankful.

I've decided that I need to take it a little easier for the next little while so my posting may be less regular. I promise that my mini-vacation it won't be too long!

Wordless Wednesday - Black Dog in Gold

SNARF!

Running like the wind

Black Dog Happiness

Happy Independence Day

This is my recollection of a famous sentence from the Declaration of Independence -- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women - added by me) are created equal, that they are endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

For me, the pursuit of happiness involves having wild places where I have the freedom to explore nature. I do that every day with amazing trails out my back door and seemingly endless forests and mountains to explore.

Our meadow golden flowers are almost too tall for Shyla now! I'm so glad that our country has seen fit to preserve some open spaces like this meadow, which are now a haven of peacefulness in our modern world. They also provide wonderful habitat for a variety of animals.

Next, we moved about 100 yards to where the purple flowers are taking over. I believe that these flowers are called Locoweed. They are poisonous to some grazing animals but are a beautiful color.

Purple is my favorite color so I'm thrilled to see the purple haze gradually appear in the meadow. I know our land so well that I know that this progression happens every single year and probably has for a very long time.

Happy Independence Day. I love the unique beauty of our land, especially the mountains! I'm glad that the pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right for all of us.

Natural Sky Show for 4th of July Weekend!

We had a natural sky show for the fourth of July weekend!

As we watched the orange colors, the Hermit Thrush were singing and the Night Hawk couple were squawking at each other as they caught bugs over our heads. I love those sounds.

There were no loud booms, which made us all happy! Neither of our dogs is super sound sensitive but I worry about every stressor due to Shyla's epilepsy.

Due to the fire danger, we shouldn't hear any booms for the holiday. Campfires, shooting, and fireworks are all banned. Of course, that hasn't stopped our "visitors" in the National Forest from having campfires. I've found two abandoned smoldering campfires in the past few days, requiring a full response from the fire department. Thank goodness for our dedicated volunteer firefighters and for our Deputies who chase down the "campers" who have fires despite the fire ban.

I hope that you're having a fun and safe holiday weekend.