An Eared Grebe in early season plumage gets ready to move across the pond. Maybe it’s those red eyes but I would not want to find myself alone in a dark alley with a flock of these birds.
Tag: bird watching
Just minding your own business
A male Cinnamon Teal swims by looking ahead while we quietly sit and enjoy the view. Those days spent photographing wildlife, just sitting letting things swim, fly or walk by are some of our favorites.
Observing and being observed yet each going about their own business so to speak.
Quiet days in noisy times make for respite we all need.
Wishing you a wonderful and quiet weekend.
Wake up call
One of our favorite experiences when walking along the edge of a marsh is listening to the wonderful call of the Marsh Wren. Listening to maybe a half dozen or more at times belting out a little tune. Some days the wren stay hidden in the cattails and marsh grasses and that’s ok, but every once in awhile, they pop out in full view and then let the show begin.
Mr. Sunshine
A Common Yellowthroat providing a big o’l dose of sunshine on an early spring day.
Spring Sandy
Just before it began to green the Sandhill Cranes made their way through our region.
Somedays you can only hear them flying high out of sigh in a cloudless spring sky. Somedays they are out foraging in wide-open farm fields just outside of town. Yet on this day we found a single crane blending into last years cattails in a shallow marshy area. Despite the lack of green a sure sign that spring was on the way.
American White Pelican: Pelecanus erythrorhynchos
An American White Pelican enjoying a wonderful spring sunset high in the Rocky Mountains. The grass is just greening up around the edges of the lake but the Pelicans have arrived on their way to the boreal forests where many breed. A sure sign summer is on it’s way.
Snow Goose
Just a few shots of what we found to a be a fine looking Snow Goose resting in some grasses not yet greening up just a few weeks ago.
By now those fields must be green and the goose departed for land far away.
Happy Friday and wishing you a fine weekend.
Chukar
The Chukar , pronounced choo-karr. is a game bird introduced to North America and New Zealand from Eurasia. The Chukar typically inhabits high, dry and rocky terrain in Western North America. We have occasionally gotten a glance and sometimes a quick photo of them while out and about in the great basin region of the United States but our encounters were always short and to the point. That all changed a week ago.
While sipping our morning coffee this lone Chukar wandered into our yard. Probably an escapee from a bird dog training session or from a hunting ranch. This day we had a chance to observe and photograph this bird up close and for several hours as it hung around most of the day and into the early evening.
It was fun to get a good look at this Chukar however by days end they had wandered off into the sunset.
Sue and Lou return
For the last few years a fine pair of Mallard Ducks have chosen to share a small local pond with us. We have named the pair Sue and Lou and they have become fine friends indeed. This day we found Lou sitting quietly waiting out a middle-May snow storm.
Sue enjoying the early evening light just a few days after the snow.
Welcome back and here’s to a fine summer.
When the going is good…
… the good get going. Or in this case eating and that is exactly what they Yellow-headed Blackbird was doing this afternoon. Feasting on the fresh hatch of midges that seemingly coated the tall Phragmites. While Phragmites grasses make for a nice backdrop in photos most are non-native species which are invasive in wetlands all across the United States. Many non-native Phragmites outcompete native marsh vegetation and provides little or no food for most marsh-dependent wildlife.
nature has no boss 
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