What an EXCITING day! First, I celebrated Ranger's belated birthday with apples, which he loves. We had a tremendous ride--I wish it had been a dressage show, because he was PERFECT! :-)
On the way home, I spotted a female pronghorn with a baby. Pronghorns are not actually antelope, nor are they deer, gazelle, or any other ruminant-type species--in fact, I'm not certain that they are even ruminants, since I don't know if they chew cud. Anyway, they are a species unto themselves, and found only in North America. They are the only species of animal to grow branched horns--those are not antlers, but horns, and they shed them, like deer. I happen to think that they are incredibly beautiful animals, and I've always wanted to see a baby, but they usually have them way out on the plains and don't come close in until the young are a few months old. This one is only about 1 1/2 miles from my house, so I really lucked out! The females give birth in late May/early June; this baby was probably less than 24 hours old since it was still very wobbly.
As I stopped to take pictures, mama got nervous, put the baby down, and took off. I was able to use the fantastic zoom on my camera to get photos of the baby (no, I did NOT get this close to it!). Isn't it amazing? It was so tiny--probably 10-15 lbs, and maybe 24" long. Its coat looked as though it had recently dried, which reinforced my guess that it was just born. Look at the eyeliner around its eyes, and the little bare spots on its head where its horns will come in! It didn't move, didn't blink, hardly breathed, so I snapped quickly and left so that mama could come right back. She was waiting right over the hill.
Indian Paintbrush are also in bloom. They are small, but striking flowers. I spotted this near the fence.
Coming up later this week....a trip to New York to the Belmont Stakes, to see Big Brown accomplish the Triple Crown!!!! I'm SO excited!
No comments:
Post a Comment