June 9: Picture of the Day

There is one place in Peoria County where I can always count on seeing a bluebird. Kramm Road. Those little rascals are always there.

Herb Unkirch of Edwards has some houses he tends there. He reports that bluebirds are in their second nesting of the year. So far this year Herb has had 120 nests with at least one egg, 471 eggs total, 262 hatchlings and 187 fledglings. He reports that sparrows and wrens have broken lots of eggs this year.

The birds on Kramm Road seem to do well. This morning I saw a male take food to nestlings and this evening, the female pictures above was nearby. Unfortunately, her pose was fairly typical. Because while I can see lots of bluebirds on Kramm Road, that doesn’t mean they cooperate for pictures very well. Usually I see them for only a second before they fly off. Or they will pose for me on the wrong side of the road, in the shadows or backlight or something that makes them hard to photograph.

And if all had gone well, this would not be today’s picture. There’s a group of four bucks hanging out in a field that have so far been just out of good picture range. One of them has a bad front leg and walks very funny. His rack is also growing in non-typical on the left side. Guess that means he must have a bad right leg. Anyway, I had planned to use one a deer picture this evening. Somehow, that picture is gone. A digital gremlin must have attacked.

So instead we get a female bluebird poised on a wire.

Oh well, there’s plenty of time for bucks.