From: Chris Howard and Rosie Beach
Email: choward@telis.org
Date: 3/10/02
Time: 6:39:29 PM
Remote Name: 209.209.68.100
While trying to ferret out some Pink-sided Juncos at Millpond, we were totally distracted by mewing bright blue robins, which of course turned out to be electric-blue Western Bluebirds. We counted 5; 3 male, 2 female. In bright breeding plumage, the males had a totally blue-hooded heads and warm bronzed-orange breasts that changed to white in an inverted "U" shape half way down their front. The 5 traveled together from tree to tree in a large circle bounded by the pond, the dirt parking lot by the restrooms, the locust grove, and the baseball diamond. They were always on the lower branches, on the ground, or lining the fence of the baseball diamond.
It seems there haven't been many Mountain Bluebirds in the Owens Valley this winter...these Westerns made up for that. Well worth the drive out there 'cause they're absolutely gorgeous!