Wednesday's postcard, and a Hard-working bird with colors from the sky

July 3, 2024

July’s mercurial wildflower, the Green-banded Mariposa lilly

Beauty and the bugs

The photographer that lives in my head, who wears a cowboy hat instead of a writing helmet, has his own calendar. It’s not nearly as beautiful as those my friend (and Rhubarb Skies website designer) Taylor Roseweeds fashions with ink and paper and an extraordinary imagination. But it governs most of the year.

male, flashing from nesting cavity

Things really change quickly out there, in nature, and it seems to all go by too fast, except in February, of course. Yesterday was the end of bluebird season (mostly) because it’s going get really in about 24 hours, and when it gets hot the photographer with the cowboy hat, grabs a swim cap (mine luminous pink, the better to be visible to water craft), a snorkel, and an underwater camera, to go swim with trout. It’s been the routine for more than a decade now.

female, with a small bug for the nestlings

So here’s this year’s celebration of bluebirds, voracious eaters of insects this time of year, including the two that are the bane of hikers like me—ticks and mosquitoes. Hope you enjoy the gallery…

The ol’ ‘I know you’re there look.’

Bluebird couple in morning light, near their nesting cavity

And high in the nearby pines

Snagging a cricket

Pensive, for a moment or two…

female, hunting near the ground

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