It was a cloudy mid-morning when we ran across this Clay-Coloerd Sparrow singing away. Their song is an interesting one and one that sounds quite like an insect to me. Clay Colored Sparrows are birds of shrubby terrain and that is exactly where we found this one. They are numerous within their range in the northern prairies of North America yet their numbers seem to be declining due to habitat loss.
Two mule deer fawns head off into the sunset through fields of sunflowers and balsam root with grasses just tall enough to easily slip out of sight when need be. They were not alone this evening as Mom was just ahead leading and teaching these two little ones the ways of Mule Deer life as they quietly slipped off into the sunset.
Bugs and flowers go hand and hand. This little black and yellow guy was probing for nectar while doing a little polinating at the same time. One of the things that is fun about macro photography is getting a glimpse into a world you really can not see with the naked eye and all too often we forget that just because we can not see something it does not matter.
While floating down a stretch of the Snake River in WY we startled this Sandhill Crane who was hidden in the grass on the river bank. They squawked a Sandhill Crane squawk and did a big jump of alarm but given the river was moving us right along they soon had the bank to themselves again.
He made it through a long cold winter safe and sound now with antlers growing fast and wrapped in a velvet coat. A young White-tailed Deer makes his way through the forest aware and quietly as he can.
Perhaps not technically inch worms yet a tasty meal to a female Yellow Rumped Warbler nonetheless. We watched as she picked them off of the aspen leaves inch by inch for an early morning meal.
A Western White Butterfly taking a bit of a rest on the green green grasses growing in a field nearby. Spring has sure done it’s job this year as the grasses have grown up tall. It’s only a matter of time and the mid-summer heat before they will seed and turn towards brown. It all happened in what seems a blink of an eye this year and it sometimes feels hard to drink it all in.
The Warbling Vireo is a beautiful singer more easily identified by song than by sight however every now and then one will make a brief appearance from up high in the tree-tops where they spend most of their time foraging for insects like small caterpillars.
Warbling Vireos frequently make themselves at home in Aspen tree where they are much easier to observe than in the tops of trees of the coniferous forests near us. This day we got a good look at a Vireo just hanging out in the aspens.
A beautiful singer and a song that rings out loud with the sound of summer through the forests in both east and west.
Thank goodness for fence poles.
A nice looking Wilson’s Snipe singing away on a fence post along a small county road in Southern Wyoming. Photographed while on the way to Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
Early summer is Rabbit time. Last weekend we saw plenty of healthy rabbits roaming the sagebrush and grasslands of the Arapahoe Wildlife Refuge as well as plenty of Hawks looking for an easy meal. Luckily for this guy he stayed on guard and was reluctant to stray too far from the cover of the sage.
nature has no boss 
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