Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: food for her babies

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... The day before yesterday, on 20 June 2016, I went for a drive SW of the city again. This time, I was thrilled to bits to see two male Bobolinks and a female. I had driven backwards and forwards along the road where I had seen them a few days ago, with no luck. I gave up and, instead, spent some time photographing a beautiful pair of Mountain Bluebirds. After a while, I told myself it was time to leave the Bluebirds in peace and go and see if there was any sign of a Bobolink. I had literally climbed back into my car and pulled forward maybe six feet, when a bird flew to a fence post. It looked bigger than a Savannah Sparrow, so I was curious. Turned out to be a male Bobolink, who gave me the chance for a few quick shots before flying away. Unfortunately, the sun was not in a good direction. Time to go and photograph a Tree Swallow, female Red-winged Blackbird and a Snipe and then I returned to the pair of Bluebirds. This time, they had two brief visitors - a Brown-headed Cowbird and a tiny Savannah Sparrow, who insisted on trying to perch on the same fence post as the male Bluebird. It was kind of cute to see the two together. I always love to tsee the back view of a female Bluebird, with just little touches of blue showing in her feathers. After a while, I decided it really was time to head for home. While crossing the road to my car, I spotted a bird perched on top of a tree way down the road and discovered it was a Bobolink again. It spent a bit of time flying around with another male and a female, eventually flying to a fence post. I had never seen a female before, but recognized it from various photos I had seen online a few days ago. Females are a lot smaller than the males and very different colouring. Three quick photos and it was gone. One of the males stayed on a fence post for a little while, but I was looking into the sun and the light was horrible. All three birds took off across the field and stayed down in the grass and I knew this would be a good time to tear myself away and head happily for home. Normally, I don't get out this often, but I know that it won't be long before all the birds I saw today will have migrated. Also, this was the first day of summer, so I really wanted to spend a few hours outdoors.

HAPPY 4th JULY to all Americans, whether at home or overseas! Somehow, I just can't imagine having a hairy caterpillar dropped down my throat, lol! No doubt this female Mountain Bluebird's babies don't mind, though. Photographed when I went for a drive along the backroads SW of the city, on 23 June 2014. 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... The famous, annual Calgary Stampede begins today, with the Stampede Parade taking place downtown this morning. William Shatner (from Star Trek) is our Parade Marshall. No worries about the weather, as it's a beautiful, sunny day today. Temperature is 21°C so far, so not unbearably hot for people who are lining the parade route or taking part in the parade. Yesterday afternoon, we got up to around 32°C, which was too hot for my liking.

With lots of patience, I managed to get a pair of Mountain Bluebirds catching various caterpillars, spiders and unrecognizable insects to feed to their young ones. This beautiful lady showed off her interesting and colourful catch before it was dropped into the wide-open mouth of one of her babies in their nest box. Taken on 15 June 2013, SW of Calgary. 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...

This beautiful Red-winged Blackbird female took me by surprise when she collected insects and then flew up to the fence fairly near to where I was standing (no cropping necessary). Usually, these birds fly in the opposite direction! The males of this species are flashy, but the females definitely have a beauty of their own. I love the little hint of orange that you see on some of them. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_Blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_blackbird/id Oh, my gosh, we are having torrential rain!!! It must have rained heavily during the night, as there were large puddles everywhere, but it has started to rain heavily just now. Oh, the thousands of poor people who have already suffered tremendous damage from the Flood of the Century during the last two weeks! I feel hesitant to check online or my TV to see if anywhere has new flooding. On Friday evening, one of our communities called Sunnyside had flash floods. Really, enough is enough! Not good weather for all the visitors who decided to go down to the Stampede Grounds today, either.

With lots of patience, I managed to get a pair of Mountain Bluebirds catching various caterpillars, spiders and unrecognizable insects to feed to their young ones. This beautiful lady showed off her interesting and colourful catch before it was dropped into the wide-open mouth of one of her babies in their nest box. After this catch, she seemed to only bring home a few small things - it was Dad who caught the larger morsels : ) Taken on 12 June 2013, SW of Calgary. 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... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It feels like so long since I've been out with my camera (only five days), so I've grabbed another Mountain Bluebird photo from my recent archives : ) There are still many that I'm quite pleased with and I am trying to spread them out on my photostream, so that they won't become too boring, lol. Found this pair of beautiful Mountain Bluebirds SW of Calgary on 12 June 2013. This is Mom, with some kind of Orb Weaver Spider in her beak, ready to feed her nest box full of babies. I can't help wondering if her babies are all safe, after the torrential rain we've had and the resulting flooding we are dealing with. Just hoping that the rain didn't somehow get into their nesting box and drown her little family. So many birds will have been swept off their nests, babies and all. 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... For info on the massive, destructive, horrendous flood and state of emergency that is going on in Calgary and so many parts of Southern Alberta, see yesterday's posting. I haven't yet checked on TV to hear the latest updates - third morning in a row that I've overslept so late. Last night, I just couldn't sleep, though I must have fallen asleep somewhere around 6:00 a.m.. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9107752703/ Incredible YOUTUBE VIDEO OF CALGARY FLOODS from Global News: youtu.be/bRS8YfVlt3Y