Messing around

Murph and I went to the Uintas (Mill Hollow) this morning.  Not too early, and we saw two sandhill cranes as we drove into Kamas!  The day was a clear sky day to start with, clouds starting just after 12noon.  A few deer, a few flowers, a redtail and a sandhill crane on the way home in Woodlands.  Really an incredible day of letting the smells of the forest and the willows and the sage just permeate my brain and being.  Murph, being somewhat less concerned with philosophy, just loved running and smelling and getting in the water!

My faithful and wonderful companion on my trips!

The wildflowers have really faded out, and the willows are changing their color already!  It smells like fall in the mountains!  The beauty continues if you are willing to look for it!

We only saw does, the bucks must be hanging out together somewhere else!  This one was in a hurry to get to some cover, so she moved pretty fast across the open area.

I believe this is a white Indian paintbrush - whatever they are, they come out later and stay longer than most of the wildflowers.  Subtle but beautiful.

So - can you find the redtailed hawk in the picture above?  Not so obvious, and the camera was a bit challenged to focus on it.  I heard the well-known scream - the one that you hear in every Western movie - and that alerted me to look for the bird.

Finally, driving home, I saw two sandhill cranes in a field.  I had to turn around and pullover, get out and take pictures.  Watching them it looks like they eat some grains as well as small creatures - grasshoppers, voles, etc. 
As I said in the beginning, an incredible day - just to be alive and see all this and more and smell the wonderful pines and the willows and the sage, to have Murphy run down the trail in front of you and turn and check to see that you are coming, the sun on your face and the wind cooling you off - life is good!