Those Cute Western Blackbirds

One of the cutest birds I saw on our trip across country was the very common (there) and very uncommon (here) Brewer's Blackbird.  IMO, he is a very stylish and very handsome bird. 

Besides the shocking bright yellow eyes, there is  a lot to like about these birds.  The way they strut around would look appropriate if you added a top hat and tails!

And a head on shot adds an interesting effect to this normally svelte blackbird.

The female of the species is less dramatic, but you would know they were related simply by the similar body movements and behavior.

Actually, I'm not entirely sure if we are looking at a juvenile male or a female Brewer's Blackbird!

Wildlife in Nevada and California

I spent the last few weeks driving across the country with my daughter.  Driving from coast to coast is a marvelous adventure that I would recommend to everyone. Since we were on a pretty tight schedule, I didn't take out my camera until we met up with my son in Nevada.  (My daughter captured some lovely landscapes along the way, though.  Thank goodness for that!) In Nevada and California I managed to see quite a few examples of western wildlife, such as the Brown Pelican pictured above. I'll go into more detail later, but this post is just a quick taste of the exiting sights out in the wild west.

This coyote is not much different than the ones we are used to seeing, but wait until you hear the story behind this image.  It will amaze you, I'm quite sure about that!

I thought this little bird was a miniature Eastern Towhee or something.  In reality, this is an Oregon Junco.  It's the size of a junco, all right, but I would never have guessed his species by his coloring!

The sea otters in Carmel, CA were just adorable.  We saw other amazing sights in Carmel that I'll post about very soon.

There were literally thousands of Brewer's Blackbirds everywhere we went.  Prior to this trip, I had seen exactly one!

Of the four or five species of grebes we saw, the Western Grebe was by far the most exotic.  But all the Grebes were life-listers for me, so I couldn't be happier about seeing them.