More Prairie Fall

I'm not talkative this morning, so I'll just post some photos from Sunday.  It was such a pretty day.

Mountain Bluebirds frolicking about at an old corral

Aspen

Moose Mountain Creek

Gooseberry Lake

There's a juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron  standing in the water

Here's another one, intently hunting near Moose Mountain Dam

Profile

Spring? Dare I Hope?

Photos from around here today

More Mountain Bluebirds - honestly, I have never seen so many of them as we have this year.  I expect most will be on their way north soon.  However, many will stay in this area to breed.   

Snowpack break-up on Long Creek

A lean and perky Richardson's Ground Squirrel  (Spermophilus richardsonii) having a  nibble of dead grass - it was a long, cold, hibernating time this past five or so months.

A winter casualty

The Souris River at Taylorton Bridge

Mountain Bluebirds

Sialia currucoides

Some let me get a little closer this afternoon

Mountain Bluebirds

I've had a bout of Spring Fever or something - whatever it is, I've been easily distracted by any bright, shiny object, as it were.  

Friday morning I went out on a birding drive.  The melt was on and bits of bare ground and stubble were showing in the fields - well, in some places, others, not so much.

Mountain Bluebirds (Sialia currucoides) have been flocking through my area.   

Pleasant little birds with very long wings.  They tend to hover a bit before dropping down to the ground to pick up seeds or insects - more seeds than anything at this early stage of Spring. 

There were about 60-65 birds in this flock.  Expect they are long-gone North by now.

Definitely a favourite Spring bird, and usually the first migrating species to show up here.  Bless'em!

Some Local Stuff....

I drove around my usual birding route here (in the Estevan area of Southeastern Saskatchewan.)

Water is being released from Rafferty Dam reservoir big-time.  Rafferty is on the Souris River.

And from Boundary Dam reservoir as well.  This is water coming into Rafferty from Boundary.

At Boundary - there are thousands of Mallards along that far shore below the snow banks.  All this water release is in an attempt to mitigate the flooding expected as deep snow cover melts in the next few weeks.

A Mountain Bluebird caught in an awkward icy landing

And a few Mule Deer just standing around