NaturalVisions Blog

Last week’s quiz featured a widespread North American species that breeds both near some coastlines and on inland lakes, but Winters mostly along the coastlines of more southerly states. This particular photo showed an example of an adult Forster’s Tern (Sterna fosteri) that is molting from Winter plumage to breeding plumage. For this week, another widespread species from the family that gives me the most grief when it comes to identification. Good luck and great birding!

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Buntings (5 images in album) (click image to view album)
There are five species of Cardinaline buntings* that occur in North America, two of which are found only along the Mexican Border – Varied Bunting and Blue Bunting. Of the three that are regular breeders within the lower 48 states, featured here are two, Indigo Bunting and Painted Bunting. The third, Lazuli Bunting, I only saw for the first time a few weeks ago and, if I had a photo from that experience, it would be featured here, too. The Indigo Buntings in the album were both photographed in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, the Painted Buntings in Central Florida. I used to get Painted Buntings during migration in my yard back in Florida and they were likely one of the species that would contribute to my fascination and love of birds.

*Snow Bunting, McKay’s Bunting, and Rustic Bunting are in the sparrow family.

Richardson’s Ground Squirrel (click image to view larger)
On a cool morning at Montana’s Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, this Richardson’s Ground (Urocitellus richardsonii), found itself a nice, colorful, lichen-covered rock to soak up some rays from the sun.

Butterflies (7 images in album) (click image to view album)
As I was sitting around enjoying my coffee this morning I was trying to think of something for today’s post and I settled on butterflies. As guess that is real “serendipity,” right? Whatever strikes me as a good idea at the moment. There are seven images total in the album: three from Florida, one from Idaho, and three from Texas. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Last week’s quiz was a tough one, a  juvenile Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula). The smallest of the North American grackle species, the young males lack the trademark yellow eye they will have as an adult. We’ll head to the shore for our quiz this week – good luck and great birding!
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Woodpeckers (6 images in album) (click image to view album)

This week’s edition of Wings showcases 6 species of woodpeckers from my collection of avian images. We begin with a female Downy Woodpecker feeding a nestling, and end with a Pileated Woodpecker doing the same. In between are a male Red-bellied Woodpecker, Arizona Woodpecker (the only brown woodpecker in North America), a Golden-fronted Woodpecker, and, one of my favorites, an Acorn Woodpecker.

American Pika (click image to view larger)
You can never see too many pics of Pikas, so for this week’s post an American Pika (Ochotona princeps) from Jasper National Park with a mouthful of winter food to be stored. They’re so cute it’s almost not fair to the other Lagomorphs . . .

Yosemite (5 images in album) (click image to view album)
A collection of five photos from earlier in the decade from a couple of trips to Yosemite National Park. In fact, 3 of them (Half Dome sunset, El Capitan, and the Bridal Veil Rainbow) are from before digital, I’m guessing circa 2001 or so. It’s always been one of my favorite places, something a lot of people probably agree with, given the crowds . . .

Last week’s quiz bird was a juvenile Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana). In keeping with the theme, for this week another potentially challenging juvenile. As always, good luck and great birding!

Bald Eagles (6 images in album) (click image to view album)

This week I offer up a collection of 6 images from my trips to Homer, Alaska in 2005 and 2006 to photograph Bald Eagles. Those were good times. There are a lot of superlatives I could use to describe Bald Eagles: amazing, majestic, beautiful, awesome . . . and I could go on. But they really are just another bird and their behavior at times even reminded me of the sort of bad things people say about gulls. They fight with each other, steal for each other, and exhibit other bad behaviors. Still, the superlatives fit and they are one of my favorites – I’ve probably seen over a thousand and still get a thrill when I see one.