Archive for ‘October, 2010’

Friday: Jewel Basin

Down (actually UP!) the road we went to the Jewel Basin Trailhead Parking lot – Camp Misery by name. No, I don’t know why they call it Camp Misery – it is beautiful.

We were headed up and suddenly a large bird swooped over the road. Jerry thinks the owl was after some critter on the road – we saw a lot of chipmunks … but our presence disrupted things.

All three of us had seen owls at night or dusk, but never in the day time. What a treat! I don’t think the great horned owl had the same perspective on the encounter since lunch got away…

Not too much further along there were 3 goats on the road. Let me point out that neither Sandy nor I specialize in wildlife photography… we missed the goats in the road and unlike in Glacier National Park where they seem trained to pose for tourists, these goats headed for cover.

The photo above is actually later, when we were walking on a trail. And once again – this goat stood spectacularly posed until we had cameras raised.

Both Sandy and I got great photos of the goat’s behind…

Morning by moon shadow

This past week has been a reprise of summer with warm days and cool nights. The nights have been clear – our last walk of the evening taken under the canopy of more stars than you can imagine if you’ve never spent a night away from city lights. The waning moon’s rise is late in the night (or early in the morning??) leaving it high in the sky when we venture out in the dark of a Fall morning.

Balmy temperatures and moon shadows…

…have taken me outside to sit and listen and prepare for the day.

The blue light special is Karl :)! He is in his usual spot which gives him a view and a listen over the game trail below.

Bob is usually out with us as well – there is a small critter hidey-hole under the house near where I sit, but this morning he opted for an inside seat.

All this week, though, by the waning moon and with temperatures that felt like summer, we have enjoyed morning by moonshadow.