Sunday's postcard, and the unbookable flights of spring
June 16, 2024
Rufous-sided Towhee (above); the elusive Yellow-breasted Chat (below)
Light on the Feathers
For starters, Happy Father’s Day to those of you who are fathers, or in the process of becoming a father, or caring for one. In a world that ripples, bounces, and wobbles in ways that often leave us gobsmacked, I pray you lose count of the good days and sincerely wish you’re learning as much from your children as I’ve been learning from mine.
I got a late start in the field this year, with cameras, but have been trying to make up for it before I change from hiking shoes to swim fins and explore, again, what’s going on under water. It helps that yesterday was not a swim day, what with the cold winds and thunderstorms pelting us with hail. It makes the choices a bit clearer.
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I encountered a very musical bird I didn’t even know existed—a warbler nearly the size of a robin that someone named the Yellow-breasted Chat. Yellow-breasted is right on, but “chat” is ridiculous. The sneaky bird’s repertoire of calls, songs, etc., is so much more than a chat, although there is some chatter involved. I’d like to offer a better photo of the elusive bird than the one (above) I was able to capture a couple weeks back. So, fingers crossed on that. In the meantime….
Western bluebird (male on the left, female on the right) near their nesting cavity.
Male Yellow-headed blackbird at a pond-side aspen
The dances and glances of the Calliope Hummingbird
One more twist
Iridescent Tree Swallow peering from its nesting cavity
Tree swallows, passing the nest-tending duties in the blink of an eye
Side and frontal view of the (male) Bullock’s Oriole, the sacred bird of the Wanapum people of the lower Columbia Basin.
California quail assessing my intentions…
—tjc
