Tag: nevada

165,000 Acres All to Myself – Stillwater Wildlife Refuge

I had an wonderful time today out at the Stillwater Wildlife Refuge about 70 miles east of Reno. I had only visited this area once years ago before I became interested in photography. I usually don’t think about the Stillwater as a good place to photograph as hunting is allowed 7 days a week during the waterfowl season and it is too hot in the summer. I just needed to get my timing right is all. Today I drove all over this huge refuge and did not see another soul the whole day!
There are several large ponds and lakes dotting the sagebrush plain. The water is the last remnants of ancient Lake Lahontan that covered most of northern Nevada 15,000 years ago. Tundra swans were present as well as ducks and geese. Many bodies of water were dried up, further evidence of our ongoing drought. We started off so promising this fall with good snowfall but January and February have been pretty dry. It is going to be another tough year for wildlife here this summer.
I was disappointed that I did not see any deer, antelope or coyotes but there were plenty of birds. I got the best photos I have ever been able to take of a Meadowlark. They are so skittish but this one stayed put for quite awhile as he sang his spring song. My earliest memory is hearing a Meadowlark like this one when I could not have been more than two out behind our house in the sagebrush. It always takes me back to hear one.
I saw lots of Tundra Swans and sparrows and some herons that were flew off before I could get any pictures. The birds were all very wary no doubt as a result of the recently closed hunting season. I was hoping to see snow geese but they all seemed to have moved on.
I will definitely make more trips out to Stillwater. It was an amazing experience to have it all to myself. I don’t know if I could possibly get that lucky again but I think with 165,000 acres if one or two other people showed up it would not be too crowded would it? 😉

The Paint Filly

Click on the ( i ) in the left hand corner of the photos to read captions on the photos.

I found an old friend this last week while out stalking deer to photograph. I looked up from the cottonwood groves flanking the river to the dry hills and saw three horses headed to water. Even from afar I thought that I recognized the distinctive markings of one of the horses. I hurried to catch up with them, any thought of sneaking up on deer forgotten as I hoped I could intersect with the horses without spooking them. I was able to get down wind and into some thick sagebrush and waited along their return path as they drank at the river.

Peeking at them through the brush I was thrilled to see that the paint mare trailing her colorful foal, was well-known to me. I had taken quite a few photos of her and her band the summer of 2009 when she was born. Her distinctive markings made her easy to recognize. I had last seen her in the fall of 2011 a good 12 miles to the west of this location. At that time, she had still been with her mother and several other mares. Her sire was still in possession of his band of mares. I took some photos of them and then did not see her again until this week.

Obviously she was now a mother herself. I looked at the condition she was in and that of her foal and my heart fell. The drought we have been having is taking a terrible toll on all of the wild horses but especially mares and foals. The lack of snow and rain last winter has left very little for the horses to eat. I saw the foal trying to nurse and I am not sure she had any milk to give. They are walking great distances to find feed everyday and burning a lot of calories. I have been praying, along with everyone else for a good winter with heavy snow this year but that will surely mean a lot of these horses are not going to make it.

Yesterday I think I saw the paint again with her stallion. I looked in vain for the foal. They were very far away so I can’t be sure it was her at all.  I did not see a foal trailing them.

Wild Horses

Abandoned, they thrived in forgotten corners and the out of
the way

Where others had died they survived and made the outback
their own place,

Here to stay.

Now hunted and harried, they have done too well.

There are too many to hear others tell.

They don’t belong

To see them in the wild you can’t help but hope

That their nobility and spirit will grace the desert forever

Running out there, fleet and strong,

Not relegated to dreams and songs.