Skagit Eagle trip

A few weeks ago, Alan and I got up at 430 and drove about 3 hours to the skagit river area where the eagles come every year to feast on salmon returning to spawn. We were not able to get there during the peak time, due to my work schedule, and some very wet days. However we managed to see more than 20 eagles.

While we saw over 20 eagles that day, we did not get any great photos, they were just too far away, and my camera was just not good enough to capture good clear photos. Makes one rethink the camera they have and thoughts of a new one are there.

Alan poses like his neices do for photos....what a funny guy!

The last three are just some pretty things we saw along the road.
Maybe next year, we will have gotten a better camera with better zoom and telephoto lens and luck out with the eagle sightings.

Critters from Rocky Mt. National Park

On the great father's day adventure to Rocky Mountain National Park, we were lucky enough to see several types of animals. Just finally got around to posting them!

Bears, OH MY!

We also had a few bear encounters on our trip earlier this summer. The first streaked across the road in the middle of the day when we were headed to Glacier NP. The second was at dusk while we were leaving Mt. Rainier NP. He was just hanging out in the road and strolled around the roadside.
We didn't get to see any mountain goats, but the critters we saw were pretty awesome.

SPS: Critters and tracks

For a late SPS post today, I am posting photos of critters found along white rim trail in Canyonlands NP. We spent two days on a dirt road averaging less than 10 mph.

This little guy graciously stood still long enough for me to photograph him. I had a grand time chasing lizards for the entire two days of the trip.

Alan and I saw this huge bird flying around the canyon, I tried to get a photo, but then it swooped away towards a rock formation further down the trail. We kept an eye out for him, but could not see him again. Once we neared the last spot of sighting, I stopped the jeep, and we looked again. I didn't see him until Alan pointed out that he was flying right towards us. This is the shot I got.

We were the only ones to see this guy and his buddy. They crossed the road right in front of us, and I of course started pointing...and Alan grabbed my camera and took this photo...they were on his side of the jeep. Then they were off into the rocks. I doubt anyone else saw this huge guy.

Finally, on the road to the back way into Canyonlands, Alan pointed out these. Yep, my very first sighting of dinosaur tracks.

Oh, the display

The coolest critters of the trip were these two little guys. As best as I can tell they are Sooty Grouse that live in the Pacific Northwest and Sierra Nevada ranges. We saw them on the road in Mt. Rainier NP. The male was chasing the female all over the place in full display, which according to one website I found is a rare site. I was lucky enough to get the second shot, and it is my favorite critter photo of the trip. Alan got the tail feather shot, which is very cute.

More of Lady

My family adopted Lady from the local humane society. She is a super cool dog with a taste for shredding things. I took these from my latest visit to Tennessee and have finally gotten around to posting them.

Chasing Lizards

My boyfriend recently took me to a local park called the Paint Mines, and we explored some great rock formations that will be the subject of the next SPS post. While on the trail to the formations, I would see super fast movement on the ground out of the corner of my eye. The movement turned out to be lizards running around. They were fast little guys and incredibly hard to see in the dirt. I would be able to get them in my viewfinder, but then as I went to zoom in, the little guys would take off and I would lose them in the screen. It was also really windy, which made the super zoom even hard to use. I did manage to get a few good shots before they got too far away. The first photo is a bit distorted when looked at on the big screen, probably due to the wind with the digital zoom, but I still like how it looks in the smaller format.

It's mini shaving time

I was so excited to go home when I heard from my mom that it was mini shaving time! Mini horses often have trouble shedding out their winter coats, and you have to clip them in the spring. It is one of my favorite activities! They always look and act so pathetic in the moment but end up happy because they are finally rid of that heavy coat. This is Maggie enduring the process.

He will carry anything

While visiting the family in Tennessee, I also managed to spend some time with the animals. This is Chase, and he loves to carry anything you will give him. He particularly likes books, and beer bottles. He will also carry bags of chips, open or closed. He has learned to carry things to people if you tell him who to take the object to. In this case, we gave him the bag of Cheetos to carry to the counter. He gets very excited, and walks around with his entire butt wagging in excitement. It is hard to get photos of him carrying things, because he will not stand still long enough, and tends to walk towards the camera, showing off his prize possession.

Pay Attention to ME!!!

I am posting from my mother's house in Tennessee. I managed to get a week off of work and decided to come back to retrieve a few needed items from storage. I got in about noon, and had to get out the camera this afternoon. We have plenty of animals that I try to get photos of whenever I am here. They tend to be overly friendly at times. You literally cannot go outside without one of them in your face seeming to scream, "PAY ATTENTION TO ME" They decide to follow you and chew on your hair, or your jeans, or stick their noses in frame .

"Why are you lying in the grass? You must want me to make an appearance, here let me rub against the camera for you"

"I wanna be Tina Turner, I have the hair for it...see"

"I see you trying to take that other horse's picture...not while I am here!"

For a change

I have been posting a lot of landscapes lately. For a change, decided to post something else! Today, I met this little guy while in Zion National Park. I think he wants to be America's Next Top Squirrel Model. Check out the poses!

P.S. I meant to mention this yesterday, the new header is a panoramic taken at Natural Bridges National Monument.

Dirty horses

Finally, photos of our horses! These photos include the lazy bums sunning themselves. They didn't even get up when I walked up to them! The first photo has Mona and Dozer, both rescues that we have kept. The second photo is Cruiser, who belongs to my brother and was a rescue nurse mare baby. The last photo includes Cruiser, Ember, the bay, and Charm the other paint who was also a rescue. Ember was planned and was born and raised on the farm, one of few that are not rescues. As you can tell, they enjoy the mud! Sometimes I think they are worse than hogs.

baby Bella

Here in Tennesee, there were tornadoes that went through the area not too long ago. My mother's house and property was not hit, however several homes in the area were. A woman that fosters dogs and also has several horses lost everything. My mother now has the horses at our place. This is Bella, a baby donkey that has to be bottle fed because the mother rejected her. She is a spunky little monster. We let her out of the pen, and she ran wild. So I had to share, because who doesn't want to see a baby donkey running around.

Cody

This is my brother's horse, Cody. I decided that he should have a blog entry because he is one of the coolest horses I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. This horse has more personality than some people I know. The photo was taken during the winter, as you can tell by his long winter coat, after he decided to roll in the mud. He is always one of the dirtier of the herd. Cody is the horse in the field that will be the first one to come and see what you are doing, and then follow you and "help" you until you are done. He will be the one in your face while you have your camera out trying to take photos of the others horses. His nose will be the one that shows up in the photos, because he is curious about the camera. He will carry things for you, he will not let you forget your hat or ponytail. He loves clean hair to nuzzle and drool on. Cody is also the one that will pick the hose up and start swinging it around. He enjoys playing with the other horses, and exploring anything and anyone that comes into his field, including machines, birds and people. All around a cool fellow with a dynamic personality!

Introducing Challey

While in TN in October, I had the interesting experience to meet "Challey"which is short for "Challenge". This horse was rescued by the humane society and is probably one of the more drastic examples of animal abuse. Apparently, she was kept in a small pen with two other horses knee-deep in muck. They were not being fed or had appropriate access to water. They were severely underweight and very skittish. There feet were simply horrific. These were not the type of horses you could walk up and put a halter on. In fact it took a very long time to get a halter on Challey. My family, of course, took in this horse and have been working with her everyday for months. My family brought in a professional trainer to help as well. This is Challey after months and months of horse rehab. She is still very wary of humans and not one to come up to a human, unlike our other in your face horses. She will come into a stall, but is unable to have the door closed behind her.

eye-level frog

There he was hanging on to the glass door. Apparently, he thinks it's a tree? I was surprised to see this little guy just chilling out at eye level on the glass door of the house. I first saw him from a distance out of the corner of my eye and at first, he scared me. It took me a minute to figure out what was hanging onto the glass. When I did, I grabbed my camera and tried to get a shot at night without getting reflection on the glass.

old school

I am happy today. Really happy today. Not sure why. I apparently like short sentences today too. Interesting. I had a good day at work, and a sweet gift when I got home. So I decided to share probably the happiest day in any girl's life. Her first horse, which in my case was Yellow. This is ME on Yellow. I think I was 5. I scanned a bunch of old school pictures while in TN. This one has always been a personal favorite.

Unique angles

Having so many animals to photograph, I get bored with all the "normal" shots. So I try to find a unique angle that is more for fun rather than to show people, and sometimes I really like the results. I was laying on the ground to get the first photo, looking down at a mini for the second while he was looking up to try to steal grain in the bucket too high for him, and the third, I was just a bit lower than the horse. It added just a tad more interesting perspective as it was not a straight on shot.

greetings from TN

I am currently in TN for the week. Drove down Sunday after work, here are a few of the first images of the trip, with many more to come I hope.

This is the logo on my steering wheel, I was stuck in traffic outside Knoxville. Imagine that! I was sitting there for a few minutes, and decided to play with my camera. So the Jeep logo was right there and interesting. You can see how badly I need to clean my steering wheel.

My house is just a few miles from the Natchez Trace, this is a view from one of the overlooks. The power lines are particularly attractive, and just what I want to look up and see while eating my lunch on that picnic table.

Introducing Lady, the newest member of the family. She is a lab adopted from the humane society. She was here last time I visited in July, but didn't like me enough to let me photograph her. Now that I am the only person here to feed her and pay attention to her, she lets me take her photo and even poses for me...sometimes. I have a ton of animal subjects here on the farm, so get ready, I am charging batteries now.

my pound puppy

There are a few favorite photos of my Panda. She was a pound puppy that was a Christmas present given to me by my mother. She was a stinky little critter when she first arrived home, but with a bath and brushing, she turned out to be the best dog ever. She was super smart and learned really quickly. My brother taught her to bark at words which included, "beer, pretzel, and squirrel". He even taught her to bark loud and softly depending on his voice tone. She knew several phrases like, "wanna go for a ride", and "who's out there" and "wanna to to the barn". Panda used to get angry at me when she saw me packing things up to go to college. She often would not be around to see me off, and when I came home after long periods of time away, I would have to bribe her to come so I could pet her, often offering her a ride in the car. It is pathetic when you have to take your dog for a ride so she will stop ignoring you. She also loved to destroy balloons learning quickly to pull them down with a string to pop them. Oh, and she was the best puppy raiser too, with the seeing eye pups she was freaked at first but quickly learned how to play with them and not hurt them. They of course loved it. She was around for the litter of pups that came much later in her life, she did pretty well with them, even though she was old and arthritic. Best present ever, hands down!