consworld

The pigmy nuthatch comes close to me to get a seed from the just-filled feeder. The finch waits in the trees until I’ve gone back in the house to take his turn at the seed mixture.

Birds

I photographed Stellers Jays in the warm morning sunlight yesterday.

 Today we have snow, the first of the season.

Stellers Jay

Western bluebird and two hungry mouths to feed. The nest is high in an old aspen. I cropped away more than half the image I was able to capture from a respectful distance with my telephoto zoom extended to 400mm.

Birds

Birds

Birds

Summer’s finally here and so are ducklings. My first sighting of the tiny yellow and brown swimmers was on an early morning walk around the lakes at Lower Lake Ranch.

Clouds overhead reflect white in the dark water while low morning sunlight traveled up the valley to light this straggler.

The reflections changed as I moved around the lake. Light changed, too, cloudy one moment, a bit of bright sun the next.

Birds, Lower Lake Ranch

Goose with goslings, one of the images I’m printing for bookmarks this year.

Birds, Lower Lake Ranch

goslings nibbling grass by the lake

This morning at Lower Lake Ranch I found the Canada goose still sitting on the nest I’ve been watching. Then, I wandered around looking for something else to photograph and found a family of geese with six goslings near the creek. The parents didn’t want me close to the kids but I managed to get a few images without troubling them too much as they moved between the creek and lake. There are three pairs of adult Canada geese staying at the ranch ponds this spring.  I wonder how many goslings will be there tomorrow.

My field guide for N. American birds says they nest in Alaska and Canada. But then I checked the breeding map and saw an area along the southern and central Rockies in the U.S. marked as a breeding area for them as well. They must like it here as much as I do.
 

 

cute baby on the creek bank

Birds, I and the bird, Lower Lake Ranch

western bluebird

flicker on dead aspen

flicker, full image

Birds