
You can just feel it.
Like a breath of fresh air.
Hello Sunshine.

You can just feel it.
Like a breath of fresh air.
Hello Sunshine.

Sun behind clouds and the snow a shade of blue.
When winter is winter there is nothing you can do.

The Say’s Phoebe is a quiet, slightly understated and delightful flycatcher found in dry habitats of the Western United States. This day we found a Phoebe perched upon a shrub hunting for insects on the ground below. It would sally out in typical flycatcher fashion and return to a similar location in this shrub sometimes with meal in beak.

A Black-billed Magpie rests on a fencepost while over a dozen and perhaps more other Magpies feast on a Mule Deer Carcass nearby. In our neck of the woods Magpies are shy and typically fly off well before we can get a camera pointed on them. This day their attraction to the nearby feast overshadowed thier reluctance of humans and we got to observe them close-up for a significant amount of time.

We seldom see the blue in the eyes of magpies but this day was an excepting.


Seven Black-billed Magpies keep an eye out on a Corvid relative the Common Raven who also had an interest in the nearby Mule Deer carcass. Needless to say, a seven to one advantage kept the meal out of reach for the Raven.

The late rising winters sun mustered just enough power to cut through the morning clouds to give color to an American Bison on this somewhat overcast day. Roaming the sagebrush covered plateau was the order of the day for both man and Bison on a day that felt timeless in may ways.

Each fall we leave the coneflowers alone in the garden hoping that finches will come by and get a nice meal. Until last week we had not had a finch visit. Well that all changed as a lone American Goldfinch wandered by and quickly took a liking to dried, but full of seeds, Coneflowers.

Filling those cheek pouches to capacity was the task at hand and a task well accomplished.
This little Chipmunk definitely needs a full tank of fuel as well as a full larder to make it house to those far away spring days.

Understated elegance.
That is how the overview page on All About Birds puts it and we wold have to agree. Gadwalls mix with other dabbling duck on the bodies of water we frequent and might be easy to overlook. We sometimes see them stealing food from diving duck and American Coots much like the American Wigeon will so there is more to Gadwall than that understated elegance suggests.

Light as air.
It’s the only explanation.

On a recent drive through grasslands close to home we encountered a nice sized herd of Pronghorn enjoying the morning sun. Looking at them looking back at us you could just feel their different expressions whispering a bit of that Pronghorn personality.

No dental work needed here.

Chubby cheeks!

Only one horn!
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