Al Larson Photography

This Cassin’s Finch shared breakfast with me this morning. He ate sunflower chips and I had Wheaties. This feeder is placed on the kitchen window frame. Visitors to this feeder are within arm’s reach. I have my breakfast on the kitchen counter just inside the window. I enjoy a passing parade of hungry birds.

This is a fine view of a Wild Turkey’s tail. He’s headed the other way.

I checked a few nestboxes today and found a few that had Mountain Bluebirds in residence. Here is a pair that is keeping a close eye on my activity by their home. The bluebird nesting season is getting under way.

The fancy decoration on the end of this log is fungus. Or is it mushroom? A closeup of the fungus portion of this photo makes an interesting abstract. It is of my opinion that this growth is one of the many forces in Nature that helps break down the wood fibers in decomposing logs.

We know that Spring has arrived when excess water is spilled from Lucky Peak reservoir. Lucky Peak dam was designed for flood control on the Boise river. When snowpack in the mountains begin to melt there must be ample free storage space in the reservoir to accomodate a sudden surge of water due to rains and warm temperatures. Thousands of costly new homes have been built on the flood plains of  the Boise valley. Flooding is hopefully avoided by controlling the storage capacity of the reservoir.

In the photo above there is probably six thousand cubic feet per second of water being released through the outlet that was designed to aerate the flow of water minimising erosion to the river bed below.

The sun came out. The bird came in. I just couldn’t resist taking another photo. Notice how the bird uses its tail to brace itself on the feeder.

This male Hairy woodpecker has been coming to the feeder daily for about four months. He seems to enjoy the bits and pieces of hulled sunflower seeds. I provide beef suet for my yard birds but the woodpeckers seem to ignore it. I also have a female Hairy Woodpecker that makes daily visits to the feeder I have fastened to the window. She showed up initially early last summer. I’m glad she found a mate and lured him to the yard. I’m hoping they decide to nest nearby.