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It is never too late to go quietly to our lakes, rivers, oceans, even our small streams, and say to the sea gulls, the great blue herons, the bald eagles, the salmon, that we are sorry. - Brenda Peterson
greatblueheronflightmaneuverlegsspanwingsicefrozenreflectionwetlandmarshrefugeFarmington BayUtahwildlifeavianpredatorhunterbeak
Horses make a landscape look beautiful. - Alice Walker
"The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact
with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit and freedom."
Sharon Ralls LemonnaturewintersnowhorsehorsespintograzingpastureUtahflakescoldchilldiggingfriendsfencelandscapefogvisibility
LONELY BULL
Cows run away from the storm while the buffalo charges toward it - and gets through it quicker. Whenever I’m confronted with a tough challenge, I do not prolong the torment, I become the buffalo. -
Wilma MankillerbuffalobisonwhiskersbeardhornscoatfurdandelionflowerslonelyalonecontemplationeveninglightWyomingAntelope Flatsglowingbeastslaughtered
White on white - American White Pelican
Each year approximately 10,000 of these magnificent birds migrate to Gunnison Island in the Great Salt Lake. This is an island that isn't reachable by land in any way. Thus, they nest and raise their young without fear of any predators.
flightfloatingorangeblackwhitewingspangracefulsearchingbirdavianGreat Salt LakeUtahwetlandmarshfisherman
"WILEY"
Why do we profess to so love and adore and worship and seek closeness to the wolf, the supposed poster child for all that's remote, wild and free, the mournful soul-searching stuff of poetry and song, not to mention fawning documentaries and movies, while at the same time we're taught to despise and persecute by any means — bullet, trap, wire, poison — its close cousin and equally beautiful and rightful occupant of the wild, the coyote?
coyotepredatorhunterloneralertintelligentintelligencesmartcuriouswiseableprolificgods dogmisunderstood
CINNAMON BEAR - A portion of black bears are of this color.
“When you are where wild bears live you learn to pay attention to the rhythm of the land and yourself. Bears not only make the habitat rich, they enrich us just by being.” ― Linda Jo Hunter
blackbearcinnamonquietcontemplationspringsprucehillsidesagecuddlyforestWyomingYellowstonebark
Close to being grounded by the blizzard
I spent four nights sleeping in the back of my van while this blizzard did it's dirty work. Two of those nights the temperatures dropped below 10 degrees above zero. The roads were virtually impassable. The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge was closed. What work I got accomplished was done around the small ponds outside of the refuge. The effort was worth it despite the weather.
flockflightwingedliftoffblizzardsnowfreezingcoldstormsandhillcranedeterminationeffortwetlandmarshwingspondbosque del apachenew mexico
SANDHILL CRANES - BOSQUE DEL APACHE, NEW MEXICO
Today, we must realize that nature is revealed in the simplest meadow, wood lot, marsh, stream, or tidepool, as well as in the remote grandeur of our parks and wilderness areas. - Ansel Adams
woodsbrushmarshwetlandautumncranedensitylandingflighttouch downwingspanserenitythreesomebosque del apachenew mexico
WHERE THE COLORADO RIVER WENDS ITS WAY
“I sit watching until dusk, hypnotized. I think of the sea as continually sloshing back and forth, repetitive, but my psyche goes with the river- always loping downhill, purposeful, listening only to gravity.” ― Ann Zwinger
redrocklayersperiodsriverColoradoUtahCanyonlandsmeanderlandscapebuttelostariddesertsandstone
THE CANDLESTICK - Canyonlands of southern Utah
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” ― Rabindranath Tagore from his book "Stray Birds"
canyoncandlesticksunsetariddesertinfinitycloudscloudydistancesandstonevalleyprecipicerockydrop offlayersbutteUtahCanyonland
RAIN SQUALL ON THE SAN RAFAEL
Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life. - John Updike
rainshowercloudyfogmistysunshinecliffledgebutterockylayeredskypuffystormysouthern UtahSan Rafaelalong the waylandscaperidge linemorning light
FEASTING ON TENDER SHOOTS
I'm a big brown moose,
I'm a ravenous moose
as I hunt for the willow and yew;
with a snort and a crunch,
I rip off each bunch,
and I chew and I chew and I chew.
- excerpt from Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold by Joyce Sidmanungulatemoosevelvetantlerspringgrazewadebullnew growthpondsplashmunchingbreakfastwyoming
SANDHILL CRANE: Height: 3 to 4 feet Weight: 6 to 12 pounds Wingspan: 6 to 7 feet Lifespan: 20 to 40 years
Cranes are among the oldest living birds on the planet. A crane fossil found in the Ashfall Fossil Beds in northeast Nebraska, estimated to be about 10 million years old, is the Crowned Crane, a close relative of the Sandhill Crane.
Sandhillcraneavianflightgracefulwetlandwingwingedfeathertipswildnaturemarshlandingbeakfloating
PILOT AND INDEX PEAKS - ABSAROKA MOUNTAIN RANGE
For us, the world was full of beauty; for the other, it was a place to be endured until he went to another world. But we were wise. We knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard.”
― Chief Luther Standing Bearpeaksvalleysprucesepiablack and whitesteepancientmountainlandscapePilotIndexAbsarokapeacefulBeartooth
GABRIEL'S HORN
A world without huge regions of total wilderness would be a cage; a world without lions and tigers and vultures and snakes and elk and bison would be - will be - a human zoo. A high-tech slum.
Edward Abbeybullmaleelkrutcalling outbuglingstancemajesticpridebellowinghornymating callmasterrackMadison Junctionbeckoning
IN THE MORNING'S FIRST LIGHT
At first light I was perched on the side of a hill that overlooks the Snake River valley, below the Tetons. Looking directly east into the blinding light of the sun... as smoke from nearby forest fires floated through the scene... this bull elk exposed himself from behind a spruce tree. I could barely see him through the light and smoke. I quickly tried to make camera adjustments for the strongly back-lit scene. Fortunately, through adjusting the contrast in post-processing I was able to closely render the image as I saw it through the lens. It's one of my personal favorites... although I have many of them.
bullelkantlershiddensmokeyspruceblack and whitebacklitsepiasilenceshadowsexposingrut
I love argument, I love debate. I don't expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that's not their job. - Margaret Thatcher
disagreementargumentfightsparringangerbullyaerialheatedflightwingspanGreat Blue Heronface offGreat Salt LakeUtahwetlandmarshdeterminedadofuss
BATTLE HARDENED
“People in the West like to shoot things. When they first got to the West they shot buffalo. Once there were 70 million buffalo on the plains and then the people of the West started blasting away at them. Buffalo are just cows with big heads. If you've ever looked a cow in the face and seen the unutterable depths of trust and stupidity that lie within, you will be able to guess how difficult it must have been for people in the West to track down buffalo and shoot them to pieces. By 1895, there were only 800 buffalo left, mostly in zoos and touring Wild West shows. With no buffalo left to kill, Westerners started shooting Indians. Between 1850 and 1890 they reduced the number of Indians in America from two million to 90,000.
Nowadays, thank goodness, both have made a recovery. Today there are 30,000 buffalo and 300,000 Indiands, and of course you are not allowed to shoot either, so all the Westerners have left to shoot at are road signs and each other, both of which they do rather a lot. There you have a capsule history of the West.” ― Bill Brysonbuffalobisonbullhardenedbattle readyrutcharginghornsexperiencedwild westslaughtereddecimatedWyoming
