Mountain Bluebird male
Thursday, 31 March 2022: our temperature is 2°C (windchill 0°C) just before midnight. Sunrise was at 7:12 am, and sunset was at 8:08 pm. We had a mix of sun and cloud today.
Yesterday, 30 March 2022, I really needed to get out for a few hours, after being home most of the time recently. Complicated Tax forms which I dislike intensely each year. Though I take everything to be seen to by a Tax person, I still have to find 'everything'. Also, more things to do in connection with the T-boned accident back on 20 December 2021 - needed to get out into nature before dealing with this further. Also, for some crazy reason, I decided to FINALLY give in and buy an iphone maybe a week ago. The first thing I managed to download was Flickr : ) I really didn't need the extra stress, but, hey, it's done.
So, I went off to see if I could find a Mountain Bluebird, the first of the year for me. I did a quick check on Flickr to see which Bluebird was the earliest I had seen over the years, The two earliest ones were on 20 March 2016 and 3 April 2005. Usually, June or July seem to be the months I tend to go and photograph them. I found three of them yesterday - a very distant female (awful photos, so won't post), and two different males. Rather blurry photos, but posting for the record.
In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays."
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id
www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...
While driving the backroads, I came across four or five vehicles pulled over. I always slow right down when I see this, not wanting to flush something that people might be photographing. I stopped to ask a familiar birder what people were seeing and he told me there was a Western Bluebird in the area. This species isn't an Alberta bird, and it is a species I have never seen. Stood and chatted for a short while, but there was no sign of the bird while I was there. A little family of three White-tailed Deer was more or less the only other wildlife I saw.
Stopped to photograph a few familiar old barns, and also called in at the Water's Edge pub to buy some of their delicious chili and soups to take home. Hadn't been for maybe six months or so.
Mountain Bluebird male
Thursday, 31 March 2022: our temperature is 2°C (windchill 0°C) just before midnight. Sunrise was at 7:12 am, and sunset was at 8:08 pm. We had a mix of sun and cloud today.
Yesterday, 30 March 2022, I really needed to get out for a few hours, after being home most of the time recently. Complicated Tax forms which I dislike intensely each year. Though I take everything to be seen to by a Tax person, I still have to find 'everything'. Also, more things to do in connection with the T-boned accident back on 20 December 2021 - needed to get out into nature before dealing with this further. Also, for some crazy reason, I decided to FINALLY give in and buy an iphone maybe a week ago. The first thing I managed to download was Flickr : ) I really didn't need the extra stress, but, hey, it's done.
So, I went off to see if I could find a Mountain Bluebird, the first of the year for me. I did a quick check on Flickr to see which Bluebird was the earliest I had seen over the years, The two earliest ones were on 20 March 2016 and 3 April 2005. Usually, June or July seem to be the months I tend to go and photograph them. I found three of them yesterday - a very distant female (awful photos, so won't post), and two different males. Rather blurry photos, but posting for the record.
In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays."
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id
www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...
While driving the backroads, I came across four or five vehicles pulled over. I always slow right down when I see this, not wanting to flush something that people might be photographing. I stopped to ask a familiar birder what people were seeing and he told me there was a Western Bluebird in the area. This species isn't an Alberta bird, and it is a species I have never seen. Stood and chatted for a short while, but there was no sign of the bird while I was there. A little family of three White-tailed Deer was more or less the only other wildlife I saw.
Stopped to photograph a few familiar old barns, and also called in at the Water's Edge pub to buy some of their delicious chili and soups to take home. Hadn't been for maybe six months or so.