Skies of gray, birds of white.

Today, my dad and I ventured out to Bitterroot Lake (hour drive), to clean up his construction job site a little. Saw some cool birds. Had a Bald Eagle fly with in 20 feet above me. No odd birds on the lake. Saw a big whitetail buck though, to bad it was private property. A small group of Red Crossbills alighted on the ground to get there daily amount of clay, from the excavation of the houses foundation several months ago. I got rather close, and got amazing looks. Times like those I wish I had a Canon 40D with 300mm lens. That time will come though.

After loading the trailer, we hauled it to the county landfill, or as I call it, the Larid Sanctuary. There were about a thousand birds there. Mostly adult ringbilled, California, and Herring Gulls. I did find a few juvenile Thayer's Gulls in the mix. But the bird that stole the show was a first-cycle GLAUCOUS GULL. What a beautiful bird. It really stood out in the flying flock against the mountains, or dark gray sky. Very nice. After leaving the Larid Sanctuary (dump) I did not see much of anything else.

Here is a pencil drawing of the Glaucous Gull. The scanner sucks, so took some terrible pictures of it.