We often seen antelope that come through our property and the adjacent state land (aka “BLM” or Bureau of Land Management land). I took the photo above on my way back to our house as they were heading up the hill to our back yard.
They are quite skittish and mostly keep to the wide open spaces. It’s a sight to see them run. As our fastest land mammal, they can clock upwards of 55mph. (My husband refers to them as speed goats). I’ve spooked them near our home before and they are amazing sprinters and will zig zag to avoid predators.
Lo and behold, once I parked my vehicle in the garage and allowed the yard to return to quiet again, they began hopping over and stepping through our wire fences to graze our land.
This was just a few antelope of the overall herd that often wonders through. The vast majority of them stayed off our place but this group must have felt a bit more brave in wanting to explore the remaining patches of prairie grass we still have here in winter. While the natural grasses here look yellow and dead, they are very much still alive.
The antelope moved here and there across our front yard and then began to head back towards the sunny plains beyond the shadow of the hills.
They finally joined the rest of their herd which was already wandering off to the south. In no hurry, they meandered along their journey of grazing and avoiding people and cars.
When the human sitting at her desk behind the windows thinks she sees me with her camera, but I know if I stand very still she really can’t.
While in Wyoming two weeks ago I happened upon this stunning flier; a Blue-Eyed Darner I believe, perched on a sprout of wildflower.
This was my skittish visitor who regularly frequented our target shooting location two weeks ago on a hot afternoon in Wyoming. On checking a few websites, it seems this fast sprinter is a Great Plains Earless Lizard. It was quite humorous to see it race up to us and back away again over and over. I’m not sure if it was simply curious or posturing but it certainly was a brave thing.
This second photo admittedly I had to edit extensively. Yours Truly ignored all intelligent thought and left her aperture on the wrong setting for a squint-worthy bright group of pictures. But this one I was able to edit back to a more realistic brightness and contrast to be able to post. I was hoping to keep this one as it made us chuckle to see it scurry over and then stand up to watch us a time or two before disappearing back into the scrub.
Life by Lens and Laptop 