Western Bluebirds at the Tuolumne River Bluffs

Western Bluebirds (Sialia mexicana) run hot and cold on my walks. Sometimes weeks will pass and I won't see any at all, and then I'll see several of them within a day's time, and in multiple locations. In a matter of weeks I expect that most of them will start moving up into the Sierra Nevada foothills and on into the higher forests.

These individuals were lurking around the area I call the Tuolumne River Bluffs, a future park set on the hills overlooking the Tuolumne River in the edge-of-the-foothills town of Waterford. There are some old trees, oak and walnut, lining the bluffs. I also see the birds fairly often on my college campus, but I've had less time these days to look in on them. The end of the semester is looming; lots of work piling up, and then onto delayed projects at home and office.

A less brightly colored female