Thursday, September 22, 2011

Skies, Blue Jays, Grackles, N. Crows, Doves, Chickadees, Wild flowers, and a Red Fox. A Post To SWF.

Big Sky
Today, and in fact the last three days have been overcast with rainy periods. The weather is what I call a painful day; one in which you feel every old injury you ever had. So these skies are from an earlier period in the week.
 While I'm preparing this post, there is one awful struggle going on at the feeders outside my window, rather like West Side story with a three way battle between Huegy, our crow, the Grackles and Huegy's cousin the Blue Jay for control of the food turf.
 So I put them in the post as they're all handsome guys, as well as fierce war lords. Once they break off, the gentler birds take over so they're in the post as well. The rest of the post is some wild flowers still blooming to brighten everything up; followed by a little tour of the west side of the River. The fox sequence happened while I was sitting on the edge of the old bridge abutment taking a rest and was going to take a quick photo to show you how easy this trail is to hike. It just shows how quickly things can change in the forest. If you wan to see another sequence on the fox, go to the index in the sidebar and click on April and move down to the post entitled "Life and Death On the Vermilon River..."

Remember you can click on the photos to enlarge and turn them into a slide show.
Stormy Skies.

More Stormy Skies.

Blue Jay

Common Grackle

Huegy, Our Northern Crow.

Mourning Dove

Black-capped Chickadee

Toadflax

Wild Sunflowers

Canada Geese in the Sun

Almost a Formal Photo of A Song Sparrow.

Mushroom growing out of A stump in the trail.

Rapids Bridge Abutment.

Initial Trail Photo

Fox In trail

Fox In trail.

21 comments:

  1. Great post again, love the Common Grackle's shiny feathers.

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  2. Lovely pictures, and, last of all, my favourite, the Fox.

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  3. HANDSOME blue jay and dapper sparrow! love 'em!

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  4. Great collection of nature photos, funny how we have our own favs and not so favorite animals but they are all beautiful in their own way

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  5. You've captured a bit of everything here--lovely views of your beautiful part of the world.

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  6. I hope the sun comes out for you! I'm so glad you had a few photos from earlier in the week though. All blue jays could use a few days of "charm school."

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  7. What a sky and lovely collection of birds:)

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  8. I think you really like the Toadflax, it is a pretty flower.
    The iridescence of the Common Grackles feathers is similar to that of our Starlings.
    That is a beautiful fox you caught in your camera.

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  9. A wonderful read... and beautiful images.
    I really like seeing all your wildlife.

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  10. Thanks for taking me along with you and Boomer on this trail--a fox! Incredible and elusive.

    p.s. We had a hawk perched on our bird feeder poles today.

    pps. Remember, when you're a Jet you're a Jet all the way!

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  11. Great series of photos. Our weather has been much the same here. I had to laugh at your description of the battle over the food. Happy skywatching and have a great weekend!

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  12. Each of your bird portraits was really excellent! Love the Song Sparrow shot.

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  13. I love this series of nature shots, now I really want to go for a hike this weekend!

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  14. I love a sky filled with clouds! Great shots Gary...and a fox! Bonus!

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  15. "A painful day" - I can so relate to that. :)
    Lovely skies and that crackle is a spectacular shot!
    I'm jealous over the fox sighting.

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  16. Wonderfully dramatic skies and so many gorgeous bird shots. How do you get them to pose for you like that? ;-)

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  17. It's raining here in Portugal. I understand you, really. Lovely shots, but you already know that.Outsid ia a figh...inside you post...
    Hei...the "dog " above...is an Husky? (siberian husky?) I have an husky...a crazy, funny husky that you can see in my blog ( 3 weeks ago...I gess)
    Sorry...my English is a mess, I know. I apologize!

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  18. Really nice pictures. What else can i say.

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  19. I love all your pictures,but the capture you got of the red fox was the best for me,such a beautiful animal! They get so mangy looking here sometimes,phyllis

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  20. Your world is so wild and beautiful. That red fox is gorgeous and I love the picture of the song sparrow.

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  21. Hi Gary

    Great post, I loved the fox.

    Regards
    Guy

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