Who are we? We are our stories. We are our pictures

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Bluebird of Happiness

Late in the afternoon, following rumors of a sighting of a Mountain Bluebird and slightly conflicting directions, at least as interrupted by Mr. Norris, Lorna and I, Steve Norris and Sue Keefer took off north of Mercedes to get a look at the bird. The bird quite a bit out of it's range and would be a lifer for both Lorna and myself. 

The directions were specific: "Take Road 2 1/2 between Road 11 and 12, usually on the fence just past the big horse ranch with pipe fencing and roses." How could a person miss it? So began a clusterfuck of driving around on rough back roads, with multiple sightings of no Bluebird, we seemed to be surrounded by no Bluebird. There followed a couple of phone calls and eventuaally bumping into another birder who noticed Steve's Vermont plates, recognized our fumbling around on the shoulder with empty binoculars and stopped to tell us that we were waaay lost and told us where to go. To see the bird. After another long "its just up the road" drive, we found the bird as described and took some photos. The first photo is mine, taken with a "modest" camera, The second is Steve's, taken with something looks like a white howitzer mounted unto a large expensive black box. It really works.











Here are a few I took early in the day; nothing special, although I do kind of like the immature Yellow-crowned Night -heron.



Wilson's Snipe






I took a handful of pictures today at Santa Ana, but it is sweet outside right now, 77F and sunny, no relief in sight. Maybe I will look at them if it rains some day.

Be well ... mind, spirit and body, -Gunnar

2 comments:

Redwing said...

Sorry about all that warm, sunny weather. Hope it breaks for you. That is a powerful camera that ol' Steve is using. Congrats again on that Mountain Bluebird!

Gunnar Berg said...

Steve cashed in his old camera/lens for a brand new set up.