First Bluebird

We are back home in western Oregon for Christmas - seeing our kids and grandchildren, going to enjoy ten days here going between Corvallis, Albany, and Salem. On the way back to Salem from Corvallis

Western Bluebird in late-afternoon

this late afternoon, I stopped by Jackson-Fraizer Wetland just north of town for a fast walk around the board walk to try out my new 55-300 mm zoom lens. Just as I was driving up to the parking area, a flash of blue across the bow of my daughter's Camry - my first Western Bluebird. I stopped, got my camera out of its case, changed to new lens, backed up the car, rolled down the window......and the result. No special composition, just a document for the record. There were not all that many birds out and about, and it was getting colder by the minute as the sun was going down, but I took note of:

Western Bluebird
Scrub Jay
Red-winged Blackbird
Dark-eyed [Oregon] Junco

and some sort of sparrow - the check-off list of winter sparrows include: Fox Sparrow, Lincoln's Sparrow, Song Sparrow, and White-crowned Sparrow. I don't know which of these, the little critter flew out from the grass beneath the board walk through the wetland. The raptors are abundant along the freeway and highways - Red-tailed Hawk and other large ones, along with smaller ones that I have now clue about their identification.

Here are some random photographs from around the wetland this afternoon:

Winter Red Berries

Teasel

Tree Beard

Board Walk

Wet

The sighting of the Western Bluebird reminded me of the Buffalo Springfield song by the same name that was popular way back in 1968 or '69. The link above to the song is from a 2010 concert - not back in the 60's - the band members are now all in their mid-to-later 60's themselves.

Bluebird

Listen to my bluebird laugh.
She can't tell you why.
Deep within her heart, you see,
She knows only crying.
Just crying.
There she sits, a lofty perch.
Strangest color blue.
Flying is forgotten now.
Thinks only of you.
Just you.
So, get all those blues,
Must be a thousand hues.
And each just differently used.
You just know.
You sit there mesmerized
By the depth of her eyes
That you can't categorize.
She got soul.
She got soul.
She got soul.
She got soul!
Do you think she knows you?
Do you think at all?
Soon she's going to fly away.
Sadness is her own.
Reverse of a bath of tears
And go home, and go home.