Sunshine makes us happy!

A Rose

One of our new roses...

Thursday Morning in Boulder...

We left Boulder Mountain Lodge Thursday morning after a restful time there. The place is magical and you should go when you can.

Here's some shots from the morning before we left.

Dark clouds over Boulder Mountain.

Beautiful Murphy

Yellow-headed blackbird

Ruddy Duck again.

Across from the Anasazi State Park.

Boulder Mountain Day 2

Had a great french toast breakfast at the Grill, then off down the Burr Trail stopping at Deer Creek campground to let Murphy enjoy walking in the stream, and then into Long Canyon where we stopped numerous times for photos.
Overcast day with sun peeking through occasionally. Warm but the off and on breeze makes it wonderful. Spent some time in the hot tub and then let the breeze dry us off.
A delightful day and now off to dinner at the Grill.

Morning breaks over the pond.

Male Ruddy Duck.

Nikko reincarnated.

Finally a monarch!

Burr trail.

Looking down at Long Canyon.

Stunning colors.

Painted desert from the top of Long Canyon.

Unknown songbird at Deer Creek Campground. Multiple different songs.

Boulder Mountain

We're staying at Boulder Mountain Lodge for a couple day vacation - just needed a break after all the house buying and selling. Warm here also but so relaxing and beautiful. After breakfast today will drive up Burr Trail to see some of its wonderful sites.
At the pond at the lodge there are Canadian Geese babies at various ages. Plus the swallowtails are busily feeding on the milkweed and really don't care how close you get.

Young Coot - thought he was a pied-bill grebe but his feet are not webbed like a true duck.

Father's Day on Antelope Island

Lisa invited me to spend the morning with her on Antelope Island, a Father's Day tradition that we began some years ago. It was a glorious day with enough of a north wind to keep us cool and the flies away!
Lots of wildlife to see - the one that I wanted to see but didn't was the coyote - they may have been watching us but we didn't see them.
Burrowing owls in multiple places, a variety of birds, antelope and bison!

Three Peas in a Pod

There are several places that I drive by regularly - and today I found these three Redtails hanging together. They are juveniles! I enjoy seeing their progression from fuzzyheaded balls of feathers to juveniles and am glad they have survived so far!

Around the house

A day lily, little rocks on big rock and a seed caught in a screen - all make for intriguing subject matter.  Look around your place for intriguing things.

Pine Valley

A short ride east of us and up the Old Smelter Road is Pine Canyon filled with all sorts of fun beings! Diana and I rode up this morning while waiting on the house to be inspected and really enjoyed the beauty.

Butterflies playing around the puddles of water.

The ubiquitous squirrel watching us.

Grave markers for pets.

Young red-tailed hawk looking a bit weird!

Swainson's hawk looking for food.

Mormon Crickets?

As the days get hotter and the grass changes color to yellow the grasshoppers show up.  I think these rounded head ones are what's called Mormon Crickets - the ones that ate all the crops until the seagulls came and ate them up - or so the story goes.  Whatever - they are neat to look at closely.

Sunset Progression

Sunsets are almost always worth waiting past the initial glory for the second (or third) burst of beauty that comes. Here in 15 minutes you see how the colors changed after the first beauty burst.

A diamond day!

Starting with a Swanson's that let me take some shots in flight to a Red-tailed mom feeding her babies to a long-billed curlew banking just right and a stationary marsh sparrow - what a glorious day!  And that was just the birds! The flowers were incredible also.