A beautiful day to head south for a day trip, picnic, and see what new birds have migrated this way.
A male Yellow-headed Blackbird. Wonder where they got that name? 🙂
Throwing back his head and singing his song as loudly as possible. Really into Spring!
I still remember the first time I ever saw these. We were driving past a field of corn stubble when the entire field rose into the air, hundreds of Yellow-headed Blackbirds swirling around, flashing yellow, black, and white in their wings. It was something worthy of Dali. Their song is like a rusty gate moving back and forth in the wind. But at least they look good singing it!
She is still sitting on her nest. There could be really small babies next to her. If her eggs haven't hatched yet, they will any day now. There is no way to know for sure as her nest is way above our heads. She was keeping a beady eye on us.
We added ten new species to our annual list; no new species but all ones we enjoy seeing and look for every year.
Lupin blooming in the shade of a Ponderosa grove, next to the river which is still in its high spring meltoff mode.
Balsam Root also in full bloom. This is one of the earliest wildflowers.
Not a bird….
This is a Pacific Rattlesnake, one of two we saw on the back road. This one was taking a nap in the middle of the road.
Lifting his head up for a better look before finally moving off the road.
This was the second of two rattlesnakes we surprised on the road. This one wasn’t the least bit aggressive; it was sleepy and couldn’t figure out why we were wanting it to move off the road (we didn’t really want to run over it with the car).  It never rattled at us once.  We were throwing little pieces of grass at it to get it to move, which it finally did.
The first snake had a whole different attitude to being disturbed. We heard it first, vigorously rattling, and we stopped walking and looked down. About six feet from Dan was the snake, on the edge of the road and somewhat sheltered beneath some plants. It went into an offensive coil, raising its head high above its body in an “S” and ready to strike if we moved closer, rattling vigorously the whole time. It was holding its ground and telling us it wasn’t going to move. So we continued walking past it and when we came back, the snake had moved along. Both snakes were smallish, in the two foot long range. They get much bigger.
It was interesting, such a difference in temperament between these two individuals.