Birds and Landscapes

I've been having fun looking at birds lately--they are so exciting this time of year because they're all full of songs and chattering and looking for mates, and you can just sense the energy they have as they prepare to make a nest and hatch their young and continue their lineage. Okay, that was a major run on sentence, but that's the mood I'm in. I just want to gush about birds and being bound by the rules of the English language seems far too constraining.

I've taken gobs of bird photos, and today I've selected a few that also have some nice backgrounds. A little wildlife can make the background so much more interesting. Above is a yellow-headed blackbird just about to land on some willows, with the Snake Creek Range in the background.
I was surprised by a flock of ibis flying over the sagebrush. Ibis like water, and the sagebrush make them seem so out of place.

Meanwhile, an egret ignored the background behind her, namely the cows ruminating.

And then we can see the whole tableau, the ibises landing in the wetlands while the cattle graze on the edge and the tiny white egret ignores them all.

One evening I took a walk down by the ranch pond right at sunset. It was a glorious time, with phalaropes swirling around and dipping their bills in the water to eat invertebrates.

A mallard looked quite serene and found a bit of quiet on the pond all for himself.

The swirling phalaropes kept attracting my eye as they swirled and dipped and whirled some more, like tops out of control.

Sandpipers hung out in the shallows, probing the mud, while the giant tree on the other side of the pond spread its arms, getting ready to welcome the quiet of the night.