Today Cheryl and I drove about 70 miles down to Borrego Springs. A small community in the mountains of east San Diego County. This is high desert country that has bragging rights as the largest state park in the United States.
While there are many good reasons to visit this park, mine was to maybe get a chance to photograph one of the most elusive animals in the country, the Big Horn Sheep. I had only caught a fleeting glimpse of a couple of them once a few years ago as we drove through the mountains of Idaho. Normally they live in the most inaccessible areas possible. 
This is the Palm Canyon trail where numerous sighting of the sheep are made.
About 3/4 of a mile up the trail we ran into a small flock of 7 sheep. They were quite used to being watched and photographed. We got to within 50 yards of them. Many hunters pay thousands of dollars to get within a quarter of a mile of these guys. This 1000 square mile park is home to about 600 Peninsular Big Horn Sheep. There obviously is no hunting permitted here. This group of sheep is totally isolated due to urban growth in every direction.
Each of these sheep are carefully studied. They are not very shy. We kept our distance as they are known to be quite aggressive if provoked. Both males and females had horns and they know how to use them.
This one was quite happy to pose for me. I got quite a few photos of her. You can see the ear tags that are used to track them.
There are also a lot of other wildlife in this part of the desert. This is a Black-tailed Jackrabbit that was near the visitor's center. Cheryl spotted it while I was shooting a picture of a cool looking bush. We also saw quite a few quail. The recent wet weather here has made the desert very green and lush. The critters are enjoying it.
Posts
1 comment:
Great pictures, Mike. It's nice to have cooperative wildlife, isn't it?
Post a Comment