What is now? Three of the last four entries are blue? This time, though, the birds are supposed to be blue. Indigo blue, in fact. As in Indigo Bunting - the second feeding station at Bentsen-RioGrande Valley State Park/World Birding Center (Mission, TX) is swarming with them at times. There seems to be an fairly even mix of males and females, with most of the males in some stage of molt to breeding plumage like the bird pictured at right. Shy, they tend to stay in the shrubs along the edge of the clearing where the feeders are located and will only come out to feed (or go to water) when the gangs of Red-winged Blackbirds clear out for a few minutes.
This is one of the few males who has a nearly complete molt - they don't get much bluer than this.
The "In the News" part of the title refers to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's Web Search, a column by Randy Salas. Today's column, Nature blogs spring to life, featured 6 blogs about nature topics and among them was this very blog (and in very good company). Thanks Randy!
I did make some headway today with the elusive Clay-colored Robins in that, while there is no photo yet, at least I finally saw one. This one might follow that long running trend (or is it an unwritten rule?) where I never get the birds I really want until the last possible day before having to leave . . .
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