The winning pair

We watched this gorgeous pair of Mountain Bluebirds getting into an argument with the local Tree Swallow over who would get the nesting box this year, LOL. For now, Mr. and Mrs. Bluebird seem to have won. We had a lovely day out of the city today and were treated to these Bluebirds, a beautiful Yellow-bellied or hybrid Sapsucker that was cleaning out a tree cavity, and a pair of nesting Great Gray Owls (sorry, location is being kept secret). The female was on a very high nest - all we could see was the underneath of the end of her tail. The male was a little way away, perched in a very tall tree, deep within the branches. I took plenty of photos of him in the hope that I might get one that was OK, but the light was atrocious and so all but maybe one or two will have to be deleted. We also saw an American Dipper sitting very still in the middle of the Elbow River. The rest of the day we've had heavy rain : (. Actually, you can see some rain streaks in my photo. I did ask my youngest daughter to please leave the rain behind in Vancouver, but she seems to have brought it to Calgary today : )

"Bluebirds have no blue pigments in their feathers. Instead, each feather barb has a thin layer of cells that absorb all wavelengths of color except blue. Only the blue wavelength is reflected and scattered, resulting in their blue appearance to our eyes." From Wild Birds Umlimited. Fascinating stuff : )