The other day we had a reported injured big horn sheep, his hind left leg was apparently broken or dislocated. I followed him for a few hours, and he out-paced me, even with a mangled leg. So our best guess is that he will either be one of those three-legged animals, or just lay down to die some place quiet. We saw him eating, and he has no problem moving about on tough terrain, so hopefully it will be the three-legged option.
With the days growing shorter, I have been back to watching the sun rise on most days. It is a nice few moments before the day starts.
Last year around this time I was with my dad in the Grand Canyon, watching storms build up, pass by and hit selected areas. It seemed like we would only be getting passed by this year- storms building and missing us all around. Then finally one day, we took the rain we have been waiting for, and plenty more. As I was driving home I watched storms build up all around us until they finally hit that night and the next day. We took about half of our annual rainfall in a matter of hours. Flash floods burst all around, waterfalls erupted out of rocks, roads and trails became rivers, in a matter of minutes dry washes over the road were filled with debris and rocks three feet thick and 30 feet wide- impassable.
And then out of nowhere toads appeared in select spots, sang their songs, mated and disappeared back into the cracks they came from. Two days later puddles were full of tadpoles.
Above is a buildup that looked like it would smash us, but just passed by instead. Below is a storm backlit by the sunset- coming close, but not hitting us.
Below is misty rain backlit by the sunset. That rain never made it to the ground, this phenomena is called virga.
