Moose, Swans, Water birds (20140405) More Spring stuff

6:00 a.m. and Jamie is on time for a run to the ranch. The promise of some sun has us optimistic. We started with a couple of Rough Legged Hawks and then these "golden hour" moose made an appearance.

Here is a shot of one of the three Northern Shikes that we found on the day.

We also had a terrific view of our first American Kestrel of the year.

After spying some dozen Mountain Sheep we found spotted this cow moose on the road. We jumped in the truck and got some nice images.

Like our run to the Southeast last night we found many Rough Legged Hawks on the roads.

We were also rewarded with some close encounters with some Mountain Bluebirds. These birds are usually quite unapproachable this time of year.

This male and female were inspecting potential houses for the upcoming season.

Another first for the year on the blog is this Killdeer. We found him in the stubble on side of the road.

We swung eastward and found thousands of migrating geese, ducks, and swans. Here is a small group of Pintails.

Our next treat for the day was this female Merlin. She had a Starling that she was very intent dining on.

I'll wrap this post up with these Tundra Swans that were hanging around with the Pintails and mallards.

The clouds were starting to roll in so we headed home. We also spotted 4 or 5 GHO nests, with two new ones added to the pool. I thought you might be getting sick of those shots:)  Have a great wildlife week!
Turbo