Winter is losing its grip. Valley snow is vanishing and the trees are alive with twittering. Trumpeter Swans and Bohemian Waxwings have flown north to their breeding grounds. Meanwhile Wild Turkey males are displaying and swallows and bluebirds are arriving.
In March, two species of bluebirds arrive: mountain and western. Mountain Bluebirds are the more common and breed throughout the provincial interior. Western Bluebirds only sneak into a small portion of the southern interior. So, it was a bit of a surprise that the first bluebirds seen this year were westerns.
Yesterday, a Western Bluebird couple sat together on a fence post. The male is on the left and the female on the right. The post was within metres of a nest box set up by welcoming locals.
From the post, the birds would fly the short distance to the nest box. This is standard bluebird practice: alight away from the nest; watch for predators and, when all is clear, fly to the nest.
This seems to have been a recognizance mission: “Will this be a suitable place to raise our family?”
“Yep, this will do just fine.”
Wow!! such great photos of bluebirds. I particularly love the last one, where they are looking out together from their little house.
Wonderful set of photos!
A great story, wonderfully illustrated. I will read and show this to my grandchildren.
I love the first one. They seem to be affectionately leaning in to each other. Such beautiful colour. Thanks!
As always, great images and narrative. Thanks Alistair.
Hi Alistair
There you’ve gone and done it again: the art of the narrative: a spellbinding tale. Many thanks.
I love the first one…my mother always sang and spoke about the ‘Bluebird of Happiness”…makes total sense….thanks for sharing.
Oh, these are excellent Alistair! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a blue bird, only jays.