We’re back

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The Sandhill Cranes are filtering through the area this week. Sometimes in ones and twos sometimes in bigger groups. Most we just hear flying overhead but a couple have touched down for a quick regaling stop on their journeys north.

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We encountered these two in an old farm field now for sale and with plans for development (probably another wonderful strip-mall) as other mall and townhouse are being built just behind them. It really drove home that habitat loss is occurring faster than you can shake a stick at and it really will not be long before the consequences are so few migrating large birds and animals they will feel extinct to most of us.

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This Crane had very attractive plumage and I could spend hours admiring it.

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The Cranes will be filtering through for the next month or so and I will enjoy every one I see.

Wake up call

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Looks like somebody got a wake up call and right on time as well. With little holes poking through the still snow covered fields all through the valley the Prairie Dogs are definitely wake up. One big stretch, a quick look around and it time to go on this fine spring morning.

As blue as blue can be

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With snow still filling the landscape the male Mountain Bluebirds have arrived to stake out their territories and find the best nest boxes along a quiet bluebird trail.

This handsome gentleman was quietly sitting on a fence post looking as blue as blue can be but in a very good handsome bluebird way.

Box 29

Last Sunday the wind was blowing hard but that did not deter these little Tree Swallows from spending their day looking for a suitable summer residence and it sure seemed like box 29 was high on their list of desirable homes.

The competition was high and words of caution we flying as freely as these swallows glide through the skies.

A quick resting spot on the roof was in order and acceptable to both shoppers at box 29.

Photographed on a very windy morning at Hutton Lakes NWR, near Laramie WY.