Turkeys and Orioles

On our walk today we saw a beautiful yellow-orange bird flitting around the yucca and grass, then flying into the cottonwoods chasing a paler version of itself. It took me many clicks of the mouse to discover what birds they were. I finally settled on Bullocks Orioles (see some pictures by clicking on the name). This is the extreme eastern edge of their breeding range. We’ve also seen blue jays, cardinals, goldfinches, many other songbirds and wild turkeys. On our recent cross country drive we’ve even seen turkeys doing their mating dances in open fields. Here at Church Grove we’ve gotten just glimpses of the wary birds, but their tracks are evident in the rain soaked roads. We also found broken egg shells, hopefully from turkey chicks hatching, and not marauding raccoons.

Pretty flowers compete with the colorful birds.

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