Beautiful Autumn

This Steller's Jay seems to know that the yellow autumn leaves are a lovely contrast to her (or his) feathers.

Malcolm and Max are loving lounging on the couch...of course, this is a year round hobby for them!

This autumn has been one of the most beautiful I can remember.

It's really surprising, given how water-starved the trees are now.

Everyone who lives up here is hoping for a really long, wet winter to refill our lakes and nourish the forest.  That's Lake Arrowhead in the photo above. 

I hope everyone has a good November!


Linking with Saturday's Critters

Blue

There have been lots of clouds around this month, and we've received nearly nine inches of rain!  More is predicted for next Wednesday, and I sure hope the prediction is correct. 

This Steller's Jay posed for a portrait at the end of last month.  That was the last good amount of snow we got; there was slush on the ground this morning from last night's storm and a bit of hail, but it's all melted now. 

To see more beautiful creatures and skies click here  and here.

Beautiful Blues

A beautiful Steller's Jay was in the garden this morning.  There have been a pair of them visiting lately, so I hope there will be babies in the spring!

He seemed a little suspicious of the peanuts.

But eventually he grabbed one and flew off.  Really, I've never known jays to turn their beaks up at any food...when I have breakfast or dinner in the back garden they try to snatch the food right off my plate.  Cheeky little guys, but I love them.

To see more beautiful creatures click here.

Snow!

We finally got a semi-decent snowstorm!  Not two or three feet like the storms before 2006, but better than the light dustings we've been getting for the past several years.  

A little ways up the mountain in Big Bear they got about a foot and a half, which made the local business owners and ski resorts really happy, too.

Well...maybe not the birds and animals.  It's always hard for them.  But I keep the feeders well stocked so, at least here at my little cottage, they don't go hungry. (That's a Northern Flicker in the photo above and a Steller's Jay in the photo below).

I apologize for the blurriness of some photos, it was still snowing pretty hard when I took those photos.

The snow started to melt a little this afternoon, but I think there will probably be plenty left for tomorrow and the weekend!

Strange Lights

I kept seeing these pesky lights when I was photographing a cute chickadee...

Little blobs of orange, or gold or red light...

How strange!  Were there chickadee assassinating squirrels lurking around with laser scopes on their tiny  rifles?  Were there radioactive bugs flitting around?  Were they minuscule alien space ships? Had I hit my head really hard on something and didn't realize it???

They didn't show up in this photo.  

I finally realized, after amusing myself with a couple of other ridiculous reasons for the lights, that they were reflections of Christmas tree lights on the window that I was shooting through, and they didn't show up in the photo of the Steller's Jay because I shot that one from a different angle.  But, now I can't get the image of gun toting squirrels stalking through the trees out of my head....

Unfamiliar Weather

We got a tiny bit of rain last night, then a light dusting of snow.  I think these two Steller Jays haven't seen snow in so long they've forgotten what it is!  The tiny bit of rain and snow aren't anywhere near what we need to get out of this terrible drought, but maybe it's a start...I'm crossing my fingers.

Birdy 'Tude

This Steller's Jay is eyeing me thoughtfully while I take his (or her, both sexes look the same) photo.

I think he's saying, "Get that camera out of my face!"  I told him that I'm the one who puts out all those delicious peanuts and sunflower seeds, but he just said something I can't repeat here and flew away.  That's gratitude for you...

A Quotation for Monday

"Yuck, these peanuts are frozen."  Jonathan Livingcold Blue Jay

Really, he said this.  I heard him clearly.  Well, it was a little garbled because he was speaking with his beak full, but I still heard him.

Wordless Wednesday - Again

Too Much Attention, Too Little Attention

Another photo of the Steller Jay feather; a little wind was blowing on the day I took photos of it and I just kept following it around.  I also made some little vignettes with it, so you're probably going to get tired of seeing it. 

But what really caught my attention in this photo is the dogwood leaf (Pacific Dogwood, Cornus nuttallii, native west of the Rocky Mountains) on the left side of the photo.  I love the way the sunlight is making parts of it glow. 

I wish I would have paid more attention to the leaves and not been so totally focused on the feather. I was so completely focused on following the feather I fell in the creek, lol.  Fortunately there isn't too much water in in it right now and, since stuff like this happens to me fairly often, my hand that was holding my camera shot right up into the air so my camera stayed dry.

I went out today at the same time I took this photo to see if I could capture another photo of it, but the leaf had fallen off the tree and the sunlight wasn't being as kind to the remaining leaves. And today I paid attention to where my feet were going so I stayed dry. :D

Wordless Wednesday - Gifts

                                        (Left click to enlarge)

Wordless Wednesday - Steller's Jay

I'm Watching You...

This is a Steller's Jay.  I love their beautiful blue colors; unfortunately I can't say the same for their voice.  They have a harsh sounding caw most of the time, but sometimes they do make quiet little whortling, churring, and squeaking sounds.  They only make these sounds when they're by themselves, so I suppose they're talking to themselves.  They're great imitators.  This one (I don't know if it is a male or female since, unlike most bird species, they both look the same) always imitates the sound of a hawk when it comes to the feeders.  Of course all the other birds flee and it has the feeders all to itself.  Clever bird!