This duck is an American wigeon and was with his presumed mate (below) on the same pond where I found the mallards in the previous post. I’m not sure whether they were the third pair I had seen earlier; when I took this pic and that of the female, I was on my way back past the pond after visiting with a band nearby. I didn’t quite realize they were different ducks (not mallards) until I saw the pix on the computer!
This is the female.
They’re both very handsome ducks, aren’t they? 🙂
I keep saying I’m not a bird photographer (I’m really not!), but birds keep finding their way in front of my viewfinder lately. Who am I to NOT try to photograph them?
These four mallard ducks (two drakes, two hens) were with another pair on one of two ponds in Spring Creek Basin that currently have water (which is in itself something special, given our dry conditions). They took off when I approached … and circled … then came back to land.
Super bummed that this shot is out of focus, just as one pair of ducks was landing on the water. But I love the position of their wings, and so I say it’s worth sharing.
This is another pair – landing flaps are down and ready!
Just about to touch down …
And splash landing! I caught the actual contact with the water, but the drake was blocking the hen, so I liked this image better. Watching them drop right over the pond and into the water is a lesson in flight dynamics, I’m sure! Not quite vertical, but it was a much steeper approach than I expected.
They (not necessarily these specific birds) are visitors every year … and every year, it surprises me that they’ve managed to find these spots of open water in the desert. Love having them. 🙂
Pink and brown birds!
These and at least a couple (few?) hundred more were flocking (is that a thing?) hither, thither, over, around, past and settling around me and a band I was with the other day in Spring Creek Basin. The horses WATCHED them fly and flock and land and twitter (the correct and natural way) and flutter all around us. They were nearly always in motion, and all I could tell was that they were LBJs (little brown jobs). I knew they weren’t bluebirds, but I didn’t know what they were – and I still don’t.
If you happen to know what these beauties are – that *pink*!? – please, please let me know. I think both males and females must be together, as some are less pink (do you suppose it’s the males that are more pink?).
In Colorado, we have a saying about “bluebird days.” I think (don’t quote me) it might have originated during the clear-turquoise-sky days of winter, clear as seaglass against snowy slopes, but honestly, with about 364 days a year of sunshine (I’m only sliiiiiightly exaggerating), most days in Colorado are bluebird days. The last few days haven’t featured even a single cloud in the sky (sorry, Seattle). With all hope, we have some clouds in our forecast – and maybe even some moisture this week (it comes, it goes … we never know until it falls, or spits, or drizzles). Cross your fingers; we love our marvelous Colorado skies, but we sure need some clouds and any moisture they might bring and release onto our parched region of earth.
The other day, while in Spring Creek Basin at one of my favorite lookout spots, glassing for mustangs, the mountain bluebirds seemed very numerous and very curious. I sat for a while and was rewarded with some close encounters of the bluebird kind. Under a bluebird sky, these little winged jewels of sapphire are happiness personified (birdified??).
Please bear (bird?) with me as I show off at least one (I can’t tell you whether this was one or three (or more) birds). I’m no bird photographer; I like my subjects (quite) a bit larger … and hooved. 🙂 But boy did this little guy (I think it (or they) was (were) a male(s)) put on a show. Have a look:
I love the pop of orange lichen in the above two pix. When this bird took off, he landed on the ground, in the grass, not far away. I’m sure this one is the same bird because he very deliberately walked over to a big rock embedded in the ground … with a prize.
Whaaaaaaat?!
While I photographed the little guy with his snack, I knew I was missing the key to all bird photography: the catchlight in my subject’s eye. But as I’m not a bird photographer, and the behavior was so cool (I think the bluebird was smacking it on the rock?), these two pix had to be included. I missed the moment when the bird swallowed his prey.
Who’s a handsome bird?!
For your morning dose of bluebird bright-happiness, you’re very welcome. 🙂
I *think* that’s a male brown-headed cowbird in the center, possibly flanked by females or juveniles. Please DO correct me if you know the correct ID. Birds – especially LBJs – aren’t even on my list of known-about critters.
Speaking of critters, they’re on the “critter ladder” in the trough at the main/original water catchment in Spring Creek Basin, built 20-plus years ago. The “ladder” is a bit of metal mesh that allows birds, ground squirrels – critters – to get to the water to drink without drowning. I was super tickled to see them using it with horses (that’s Tenaz in the background) napping around it after an evening mosey to the water cooler, err, trough. (All of the troughs at all four water catchments in the basin have some form of critter ladder.)
Fun bonus pic of the male actually standing on the rim of the trough as photographed through the legs of a napping mustang. 🙂
Everything in the wild needs water. Mother Nature could be a little (!) more helpful in the delivery of said water, but we do our best to ensure that it gets where it needs to go.
You know you’re doing OK on grasses when it’s hard to get teeny little horse-following birds in focus because there’s always vegetation in the way. 🙂 I’m not sure what this LBJ (little brown job) is, exactly, but several more of this color/type and several others that were very dark (might have been females and males of the same species?) were following the horses as they grazed. Based on the focus with which the birds kept up with the moseying/grazing horses, I’m sure there must have been a lot of good bits of yummies for both horses and birds! (The little orange flowers are globemallow.)
I love meadowlarks. Ever since I lived in Montana and became aware of their distinctive liquid-gold trill of a spring song, I’ve loved these bright little birds. They also practically beg to be photographed! And yet, I am *not* a bird photographer, and though they’re bright, they’re also fast! I got this pic, another pic, then this pic:
And the next-to-last pic was one where I cut off the bird’s beak as s/he flew … and then one of the empty post. 🙂
I love meadowlarks. 🙂
(These pix were taken from my Jeep, through my passenger window. I heard its trill first, then spotted it on the fence post as I drove into Spring Creek Basin.)
This isn’t the first mountain bluebird I’ve seen, and it won’t be the last; there are sometimes great flocks of them winging and zipping and darting around the region right now. It WAS the first to settle semi close enough for me to “focus” on it (please forgive the lack of focus) and click the shutter so I could share his handsomeness with all of you. Winter may not have favored us this year, but spring is inexorably on its way.
This little lark sparrow was fluttering around from sage to sage. It may have been admiring the mustangs … or the wildflowers … or another lark sparrow! I was admiring all of the above.
Speaking of “bright eyes” (yesterday’s post wishing I could see more of Sundance’s eye through his forelock), this little fellow’s bright eyes are literally masked by his markings, and in the overcast light, they weren’t bright enough to reflect light (at least from the distance at which I was in my Jeep). I heard him rather than saw him and backed up to hear more!
He’s a loggerhead shrike, known for impaling their prey, all the better that it doesn’t get away while feasting!
Handsome little songster!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 