Monday, February 17, 2014

The Fighting Bluebird

We left the Smokies and moved on west across Tennessee and Kentucky all the way to Paducah, nearly on the Mississippi.  There we camped on the west shore of Kentucky Lake, and for 3 days we watched a bluebird fighting its reflection in the neighbouring camper's window!

The trailers were close together, and the neighbours, who apparently only came on weekends, had left chairs outside.  The bluebird sat there - until it saw its reflection!

 Once it saw the other bluebird, it obviously started defending its territory.

 
Repeatedly it jumped up against the window, but had no luck driving away the reflection.  It just stayed there, and we watched it for some time repeat this performance.

 Once or twice it stopped on our car too, finding another bluebird in that window!

But I did manage one natural shot of the bluebird.  This was the best bluebird watching we've ever enjoyed, and right outside our camper.  When they visit here in the summer they tend to be fairly secretive, because they're busy nesting and raising young.

13 comments:

  1. Beautiful, a bit like one of our cats who saw himself in the mirror and went to have a maybe not-so-gentle pat, then realised there was no fur to touch. What a great experience, and lovely photos, that colour is truly magnificent. Cheers. Jean.

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  2. Bluebirds are some of favorites here in my backyard. They nest here --and are year-round residents... I buy mealworms for them to eat and they love them.

    Great photos
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  4. Very cute... In India, we hardly can find these kind of birds...

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  5. Good captures. We had a male Yellow Warbler a few years ago, doing the same thing on a neighbor's window. They're pretty territorial.

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  6. Great series of pictures of the bluebird. : )

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  7. Great shots! We had a cardinal doing the same on our living room window a few years back.

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  8. Your blue birds pictures are beautiful. We have them in the garden and they fight a lot with tree swallows. The swallows usually win as they gang up on the blue birds.

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  9. Great shots! Cardinals are notorious for doing that too.

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  10. A real stunner,super images.
    John.

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  11. Great images, we usually have a pair or two hanging around:)

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  12. I love bluebirds! I'm sorry this guy was wearing himself out fighting a non-existent threat, but what a show!

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