Wednesday in Wyoming - August 30, 2023

 

From my perspective, there's nothing quite as fascinating as watching a hummingbird flit from blossom to blossom, extracting nectar from the brightly colored penstemon flowers, sometimes hovering with its wings flapping so quickly that they're nothing more than blur.

We've reached the last Wednesday in August, which means that this is the last of the backyard birds posts. I hope you enjoyed them and will come back to see what's in store for September.

Wednesday in Wyoming - August 23, 2023

 

Master of all I survey -- that's what I imagine this hawk was thinking as it perched on a pine tree. 

Wednesday in Wyoming - August 16, 2023

 

The sunflowers may have lost most of their petals, but that didn't stop this goldfinch from harvesting seeds. 

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the birds' antics, especially when they hung upside down to get a seed. A couple less acrobatic but still enterprising goldfinches stayed on the ground, devouring the seeds others dropped. 

Wednesday in Wyoming - August 9, 2023

 

Did you know that Horned Larks build their nests in the grass? This nest was in the Buffalo grass near a walk in my backyard, which meant that I had the perfect site for watching these three chicks hatch and develop their downy coats. 

Don't you love the brightly colored open beaks, announcing that it's time for more food?

Wednesday in Wyoming - August 2, 2023

 

If you've been following my blog, you know that most of my Wednesday in Wyoming posts feature different parts of the state. This month I'm staying closer to home and am planning to share pictures from my backyard. 

Imagine my surprise when I walked to the sink to wash dishes and found this rather large bird perched on the window sill and staring at me. It's one I'd never seen before, a Chukar. Natives of Eurasia, Chukars were brought to the United States as game birds and have managed to thrive in parts of the West including -- obviously -- Cheyenne.