I'm Back

After a week of traveling, a severe cold, a three-day conference, I will post a few of the pictures I lucked into. 

Here are two flickers of a group of 18 fight over some rotten apples under an old apple tree.

Here is a mostly red-shafted Northern Flicker with some yellow-shafted feathers in its tail and it also had four in the left wing.

I was also able to visit the group of Long-eared owls and found three pairs of the 12 still there and setting up home by working on nests.  We will see what happens.

They were also a little more available for roosting pictures.

Just some more wild days in Idaho.

SkyWatch Friday. Teton River sunrise

This week the surises have been stunning around Rexburg.  This shot was take on Tuesday morning as I was on my way to school.

Just another beautiful start of a wild day of teaching kids in Idaho.

View other beautiful skies around the world at http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Wafterfowl returning.

Yesterday after my church meetings and before the weekly family gathering (all of our local kids and their families come to our home for Sunday dinner), I was able to visit the Burton area looking for birds.  The waterfowl have started migrating through as I saw hundreds of geese, ducks and swans.

This was rather funny for me as a European Starling flew right in the path of flock of Trumpeter swans.  No, this was not planned - I only discovered it when I got home and was looking at the pictures.

The swans were absolutely beautiful.  Here I was taking pictures of a pair of swan when they flew between me and the sun filtering through the thin clouds.

Many of the swans had reddish-orange stains on the bodies and necks.

Other interesting pictures I captured of birds include a flock of Common Mergansers.  How many do you see?

A Red-tailed hawk.

A pair of Collared doves.

A even a pair of Killdeer feeding on some mud flats.

A great way to spend a couple of hours in the wilds of Idaho.

SkyWatch Friday - Rexburg Temple

Wednesday morning on my way to school, the only light showing through the grey skies was right behind the Rexburg LDS Temple.  The silhouette of the temple was highlighted by the light rays streaming from the heavens.

A great view to start another wild day in Idaho.

See other SkyWatch Friday pictures as http://skyley.blogspot.com/