Sheep Gap Fire at night

Sheep Gap Fire

The wild fire that started yesterday in the Coeur D’Alene Mountains at around 5 PM has been given a name and it is now being followed on InciWeb. Here are a few photos of it from this evening as the sun began to set behind it:

Grouse

These are Blue Grouse who let me get pretty close to them this morning. They are about the size of small chickens. Earlier in the summer a hen and three chicks took up residence at my place when the chicks were about the size of tennis balls. They have stayed here all summer and now I can’t tell the hen from her chicks. It’s unusual to see them here but they are fairly plentiful in the area of the new fire. Perhaps they knew something?

Wildfires at sunset

So far this fire season the local area here has been relatively free from the fires. That changed rather abruptly late this evening when suddenly there were two, one about 20 miles to the north and one a little closer to the south.

The fire to the north was behind a mountain range and all that could be seen from here was the helicopters ferrying water to it. This is the smoke plume from the one to the south.

This photo caught one of the helicopters as it began its vertical descent to the river to fill the water bucket that is trailing below it. I anticipate getting more photos as the fires progress. The one to the south appears to be burning in the Cherry Peak Roadless Area and my guess is that it will become a very large one.

Night watch

His senses are far superior to mine: I wonder what data he was receiving from beyond my flashlight beam.

One last Primrose