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I found some mountain bluebirds!  They were sitting on and near a new wheel line that's about to go in a pasture.  Male and female.  I snapped this picture before they flew away.  

Can you find the bird on the tree?  It's right below the knot on the left aspen.  The knot looks a bit like an eye.  It's a woodpecker.  At first its head was in a hole.  I was looking for a mountain bluebird, but they eluded my camera today.  I thought I saw a couple of them in flight. Here is a crow in the horse pasture.  And below is a robin.

I am on the ranch in Idaho this week.  Will be posting some new artwork from my Idaho studio on the ranch. There is a lot of wildlife around.  On a quick stroll, I saw flocks of birds, antelope, and deer, along with the pet cats, dogs, horses, and the cows (all have babies right now). The sky is so big up in the mountains, the moon shines during blue skies. Mountain lupine.  This is what the Karner Blue butterflies must have to survive.  (I posted a painting of one on the blog a couple days ago.)      

I painted this blue karner butterfly today (endangered in Michigan state).  They need lupine fields and there just aren't that many natural fields of it anymore. I know on the ranch the workers spray the lupine because it causes grave deformities in the calves if their mother's get into it and eat it. Can you see the robin on the neighbors garage roof?

I posted a video yesterday of my time at Fullersburg Woods in Oak Brook, IL.   I got a treat when I saw the rare ruby-crowned kinglet.  The male kinglet himself is not rare here this time of year.  But showing his ruby "crown" is more rare.   I also saw sparrows, warblers, thrush, northern flickers, American robins, doves, and mallard ducks. The creek was swollen with water and it was cool and calm outside.