Beauty in a Frosty week

"What a dreary day," commented a person I was talking to.  With heavy fog and frost covering everything, from the inside of buildings it may look dark and dreary; but from the outside it is really alive and beautiful.  All wildlife needs to eat to survive as they do not have a fast food joint to stop by to pick something up.

This muskrat and several others were pulling water plants to fill its daily needs

 

Here a Sharp-shinned hawk wait patiently for a hapless bird to come along.

 

A natural flocked fir tree shows which direction the breeze is blowing as it stacks up the frost crystals on the needles and cones.

 

A beautiful Sharp-tailed grouse has been picking up gravel and grain from the side of plowed roads but runs to safety in a snow covered field.

 

A Red-shafted Northern flicker appears to be shivering in a tree where a breezy has removed most of the frost.

 

A beautiful Long-eared owl looks through a frost-laden tree waiting for darkness to gather its supper. 

 

An Evening Grosbeak brings a lot of color to my backyard as he comes in to feed on the sunflower seeds.

 

And this pheasant hen is far from where she should be.  She and her friend, another hen, were found roaming the banks of the Henrys Fork of the Snake River between St. Anthony and Ashton.

 

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," and sometimes you must leave the confines of buildings to see it.  Just a couple of days in the wilds of Idaho during a "dark and dreary" week.  Thanks, God, for sending all this beauty for us to enjoy.

Colorful Birds returning

Friday was the last day of school and I have been birding every day since.  But some of the best birds are in my own back yard.  The birds are used to my blind and I am able to get close-ups of them from it.  Here is a male Black-headed grosbeak.  Ther are about 10 at my feeders.

One of the loudest and fun ones is the Bullock's oriole that loves suet.

One of my favorites is the Evening Grosbeak.  We find them in the area year around, but I only see them in the spring and summer.

Here a Lazuli Bunting gets harassed by the House finch and Pine Siskins.

Yellow-headed blackbird continue courting in the cattails.

Western Kingbirds have joined the Eastern Kingbirds as they harasse the hawks and pick up hatching insects.

A great way to spend a holiday weekend in the Wilds of Idaho without buying too much high priced gas.