Bird Watcher

A long time local lady joined me one late afternoon to go view the wild horses. She is a bird specialist, photographer and documenter of our local and migrating birds. She also knows a lot about the Sand Wash Basin and mustangs in general. Her uncle Bob was a mustanger back in the old days over at Piceance Creek and she also ran an outfitting business not too long ago.
The first horse we see is Benson. He was alone, just wondering around.
The next horse we see is this little guy. He is stuck on the wrong side of the fence. People leave gates open which is no help to the horses at all! The BLM lady told me someone had opened all the north gates into Wyoming recently. The neighboring horses are scheduled to be rounded up this fall. We do not want our herd involved in that! Close the gates!
I try to approach him. he is just a little guy, very flighty.
The grass is greener on the other side of the fence, but this is not part of the HMA managed by the BLM. More then one horse has escaped to this area. I have seen all kinds of signs of them over there.
We continued on to Dugout Springs and saw the unusual band made up of this grey horse, Shadow, another bachelor stallion, Sundown and the 2 yearlings Bonnie and Clyde.
At first I thought these might be domesticated horses, but look at Clyde's roman nose! The bay is the filly, what is she doing with these boys?
The bachelor stallions seem to keep the youngsters safe. As we were sitting out there we also saw the white Stallion, Moonbeam,and his mare in the distance. Also in the WAY distance I glassed a band with a new foal. I could not identify them. Maybe Jib's band?
We turned around and saw the lone bachelor stallion, Jasper, gazing down into the basin.
Next we see 2 Stallions, a mare and a filly. It took me awhile, but I recognized Bear with Ellie and Flirt with the bachelor stallion, Liberty, stirring up trouble.
Here is Bear with his prized girls. Flirt is a smoky palomino. Ellie could be pregnant, not sure.
Here is Bear and his amazing mane and forelock.
Liberty, he is a bay with a white left hind sock.
He also has a stripe...
He challenges Bear. My friend and I got front row seats to some amazing stallion action. The dust was flying!
Isn't Liberty gorgeous?
Out of nowhere came the black stallion that was chasing Bug's mares down yesterday. Liberty runs him off.

Then he goes back to Bear and gives him a serious challenge.
I could hear my friends camera firing, she should have some extraordinary images of this confrontation. It felt good to share this experience.
Well, after that we continued on...Bear kept his mares for now, and saw Picasso, his 2 mares, 2 yearlings and little filly I call Mango. All horses in this band looked great just a little muddy.
Here she is! Growing up with her wild horse family. she is a cutie for sure! While we were watching several bachelor stallions were tailing Picasso, but no challenges.

Muddy mustangs. That is Mango's yearling brother, Tango, in the foreground.

What a wonderful day and I learned a heck of a lot about the birds that live in Sand Wash. Horned Larks, Loggerhead Shrikes, Mockingbirds and Burrowing Owls to name a few. What a fun afternoon spent with the wild horses and the birds of Sand Wash basin, Colorado.