Bluebirds

There are a lot of bluebird boxes in our area of Maryland. Sometimes they house swallows or other birds that are similar size and nesting habit to bluebirds - but it is probably true that there are a lot more bluebirds around these days than before the nesting boxes.

I was on a walk along a long driveway recently - and managed to get a picture of a male and female bird on a telephone wire looking out over a grassy field with mowed edges.  There were many others about but I was not coordinated enough to get close enough to capture better images with my camera.

A few days later I saw more of the birds but was guiding a nature walk at the time…..no time for photography.

On another walk with a group we started finding blue feathers - three in all. The color of the feathers changes as they are moved. It turns out that almost all blue feathers are produced with structural color rather than pigment!  The Cornell AllAboutBirds site has a page about it.

I am celebrating the beauty of bluebirds today!

After the Rain

The morning after the big rain last week was sunny. I ventured out to capture the aftermath of the heavy rain. Water droplets glistened on leaves.

Some of the fragile new growth on the oak tree had been plucked from the tree and became debris on the driveway.

There were also tulip polar seeds that had been swept by the water into piles.

Curiously - there was one very white feather than must have floated to the driveway after the rain since it did not look like it had been wet at all.