The last few days of scorching heat have brought out some amusing bird
behavior in our Kalama yard. A WESTERN SCRUB JAY chick with fluffed up
feathers opened his beak and lolled his head over in a tree for several
minutes. This photo is how he looked after he was finished with the "bath:"
http://flic.kr/p/eZjz3E So cute!



Tuesday, I had an adult ROBIN sunning in the birdbath for at least 8
minutes. The water was only about 1 inch deep, so the bird spread out her
wings and just soaked. A juvenile Robin decided to take its sunbath on the
gravel path in our back yard. It would spread its wings, snuggle its belly
into the gravel for a few seconds and repeat. http://flic.kr/p/f1og1H



Tuesday was cooler than Monday, so I spent some time watching the RUFOUS
HUMMINGBIRDS visit our two nectar feeders. This little lady made me smile:
http://flic.kr/p/f1CA4G



Tuesday evening we had a GREAT BLUE HERON fly over the house going uphill.
We're two or three miles away from the Columbia River, so I can only
speculate that the bird was headed for the watering hole on the other side
of the ridge.



Taking advantage of some shade was a skinny young male Black-tailed Deer
http://flic.kr/p/f1VPUE who spent seven hours under our front porch on
Monday. The cool breeze from the crawl space makes it feel like you're
sitting at the mouth of a cave.



I'm still hearing that WILLOW FLYCATCHER in the yard, too.



Amy Hill

Kalama, WA

628 feet up in Cowlitz County

60stops2home at kalama dot com

artlessfun at yahoo dot com