Dusky Grouse

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes


For this week's wild bird I am sharing the Dusky Grouse seen in the Rocky Mountain National Park..

 The Dusky Grouse is a forest dwelling Grouse native to the Rocky Mountains..These birds were seen off the road on the way to the Bear Lake Trail, just past the Glacier Gorge parking lot.. Adult females are mottled brown with dark brown and white marks on the underparts..

 This shot is not the best, taken thru the car window..I stopped for the Dusky Grouse crossing the road..Yes, it was to get to the other side, haha.. And to join the other two that were laying in the grass next to the road.   We saw three together..Cool sighting..

 Here are two Dusky Grouse, even though one looks like a log behind the first one..Can you see them both? Their nest is a scrape on the ground concealed under a bush or log.. They eat pine and fir needles.. UGH, how appetizing is that?

Nap time for this Dusky Grouse.. Females will leave the males territory after mating, I guess daddy does not help with the young. I hope you enjoyed my wild bird post..


Thanks for stopping by my post and for all the nice comments.

Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.  Thanks to both of our hosts... Michelle for Nature Notes and our host Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday.  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Western Bluebird

Western Bluebird

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

For this week's wildbird, I am sharing one of my lifers from Colorado.. The Western Bluebird..

 The adult males are a bright blue on top and on the throat. They have an orange breast and sides.  A brownish patch on the back and a gray belly..

 Immature & female Western bluebirds are a duller color.

 The Western Bluebird (male)  has a blue throat and the (female) has a gray throat.  This photo above the throat feathers looks like the have a tinge of blue.. Maybe it is a juvenile or the female?
 

For comparison...I included this male Eastern Bluebird above that shows the throat is all orange..I was excited to add the Western Bluebird to my lifer list.. So now I have seen all three Bluebirds in the USA. The Eastern Bluebird, Mountain Bluebird and the latest the Western Bluebird..

I hope you enjoyed my Western Bluebird post..  Thanks for stopping by my post and for all the nice comments.

Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.  Thanks to both of our hosts... Michelle for Nature Notes and our host Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday.  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Mountain Bluebird

I am linking up with Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes

For this week's wild bird I am sharing the Mountain Bluebirds seen in the Rocky Mountain National Park.. It was not a lifer but I just love the bluebirds.. My first sighting of this pretty bluebird was on a trip to the Tetons/Yellowstone.  

 Above is not the greatest of photos, I just love their open wings and the grasses.  Hubby and I sat and watched a flock of maybe 20 or more bluebirds passing thru this field in the park..I read that they hover over the ground and fly down to catch insects..

This is the female Mountain Bluebird, isn't she pretty..They are turquoise blue with white underbellies. The females are a duller blue with a grey crown, throat and back.

The sky was awful in this shot, but a lot of the bluebirds landed in this tree along with a Flicker and some other small birds.  Sorry, I could not mange better photos, the birds were a distance away in the field shared with some elk.. I was not going to walk into the field with these huge elk standing there.

Thanks for stopping by my post and for all the nice comments.

Join in and post your birdies and to see more beautiful and wonderful bird photos please visit:
 Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Michelle's  Nature Notes.  Thanks to both of our hosts... Michelle for Nature Notes and our host Stewart of Wild Bird Wednesday.  Happy Birding and have a wonderful week!

Colorado Part II

Linking up with Skywatch Friday  and Good Fences  and NF Winged

As you can see I am not very original with my titles.. I have so many photos from Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.. Visiting the national parks in the USA is something hubby and I love to do.. The scenery is usually beautiful and I can always find birds and critters.. And for this post I also found some fences for Tex's Good Fence meme and some sky shots for Skywatch Friday. And a cute Ruby-crowned Kinglet for NF Winged..  I hope you enjoy!

 The historic site in the park had many fences that did not go unnoticed by me..

 Two brown dots way in the distance are another female moose and her calf. I stayed behind this fence, I knew this would look good for my Good Fence post..

More views of the Rocky Mountains and yes another fence.. 

A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet was seen while hiking on a trail next to the Colorado River.

For two nights we enjoyed watching the sunset over the Granby Lake. 

The moon was beautiful during our two nights stay on the west side of the Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park.


I hope you enjoyed my post and photos
To see more pretty skies from around the world please visit  Skywatch Friday
and check more fence shots at Tex's Good Fences
and for anything that has wings check out NF Winged

Thanks to Tex @ The Run*A*Round Ranch for hosting Good Fences and to Sylvia, Yogi  and Sandy for hosting Skywatch Friday also thanks to Monica of NF Winged!   I wish everyone a safe and happy long weekend.

Colorado

  I am linking up with   Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

Hubby and I took off last week for a week's vacation in Colorado.. We visited both the west and east side of the Rocky Mountain National Park.. Our first night was at Granby, Colorado..  Granby is located on the west side of the park.. I wanted to start there to see the moose that are sighted on that side of the national park..

 A shot of the almost full September moon over Lake Granby. White Pelicans, Elk, picnic area in Rocky Mountain National Park, wildflowers.

The moon over Granby Lake.

White Pelicans were seen in  a small pond next to our hotel in Granby. 

A larger shot of the White Pelicans..seen in a little pond next to our hotel in Granby.

We were excited to see the female cow with her calf.. We saw the moose in three different areas..

A cute moose calf.

I believe the bird is a Lincoln's Sparrow but I am not an expert on sparrows.. some scenes from our walks on the west side of the park.

I hope you enjoyed my post and photos on our first day in the Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park. I have lots of photos from our Colorado trip.. I hope you will enjoy seeing some memories of our trip.

As always I thank you in advance for stopping by and for the nice comments.

I hope you can join in on our at  Mosaic Monday and   Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to Judith our new host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week ahead!