Bluebird of happiness

Sometimes, a quick, close shot ends up missing a bit of the tail of a bird, but I still like the photo : ) The evening of 10 June 2015, was only what I would call a "magical"! Normally, I tend not to go out in the evening - usually just too tired and there are all sorts of things needing to be done on my computer. However, having driven SW of the city the previous day and noticing a baby Mountain Bluebird poking its head out of its nesting box, I knew that any time now, it and its siblings would be suddenly gone. I have been back more recently and found a Tree Swallow looking out from the Bluebirds' nesting box.

It was early evening when I left home on 10 June, after a volunteer shift and a haircut. Really, I was just going to check on the Bluebirds and was not expecting to see all that much else. That's how the evening started, but as the evening progressed, the world seemed to come alive with bird song and activity. It has been a long, long time since I've experienced that, if ever.

Though my trip was mainly just to check on the Bluebirds, I was also lucky to see an American Robin sitting on a barbed-wire fence just a couple of feet away from a brilliant blue male Bluebird. Talk about colour! They were way down the road, so I was only able to get a very distant shot. Also saw a number of Snipe that I love to photograph.

When I reached the point where I was going to turn around and head for home, I saw yet another Snipe perched on a fence. Just a few feet from it, on the same fence rail, was a beautiful Swainson's Hawk! After posing for a while, both birds took off, with the Hawk in hot pursuit of the Snipe. I couldn't see how the chase ended, but hopefully the Snipe escaped.

Closer to home, I suddenly spotted a beautiful female Moose at a small wetland, right before I turned on to the main highway. Not sure if it's because I took my first photos of her from inside the car, across the passenger seat, but most were blurry. Eventually, she left and started walking along the road away from the highway. I crawled along, watching her way in the distance. She kept walking from side to side of the road and then stopped to lick some salt off the road, bending her front legs to kneel in what looked a very awkward move : )

Driving back to the highway, I stopped to watch three or four young White-tailed Deer having fun at the wetland. One of them would occasionally stamp one of its front legs in the water and then bound away a few feet. Funny to watch and so good to see it playing so happily.

So, it was quite the evening, to say the least! I drove all the way home with a big smile on my face.

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...