Caught this one mid screech.

We have a lot of seasonal birds where we live in Wyoming. I’m going to guess that is true for much of Wyoming.

Enjoying some cat kibble

We have hordes of crows come to our driveway during the very late fall and through the winter to get the cat kibble that I put out. The doves, which remain all year long, also eat the kibble.

There are often more of them. I took these photos with the telephoto lens from inside the house. The mosquitoes are really bad right now and I am severely allergic to their bites.

Around early to mid-spring, the crows leave and the starlings and the grackles come back. So I continue to put out the cat kibble (along with seed for the other birds) for them and, of course, the doves. But I’ve never seen a robin or a red-winged black bird go for the kibble.

Our first spring after moving here from Arizona, we got a surprise. Sea gulls started coming to our driveway for the cat kibble. Sea gulls.

They are pretty much constantly on the move, but this one posed very nicely for me.

Can you think of a more land-locked state than Wyoming? Okay, that’s a rhetorical question. But I mean, really, sea gulls?

So I looked it up. Turns out there are something like seven species of sea gulls native to Wyoming. Yes, there is a lot of open water here. But we have no seas. There are some fairly big lakes and reservoirs, though, so I guess that’s what appeals to these birds. And rivers. Lots of rivers. It’s very different here, water-wise, from anywhere else that I have lived (southern California and mid-state Arizona).

But I wonder … shouldn’t we call them something other than sea gulls?  Maybe lake gulls or river gulls?

I wanted to catch one of them mid-flight because their wings are so awesome. They are larger than you might imagine from seeing them tucked away. Also, the markings are very nice. But they were only focused on the food.

At any rate, I enjoy them. They are attractive birds. They have funny feet and look comical as they walk quickly from one place to another, slapping down those flappy, webbed feet. They have funny mating dances. They take offense at the drop of a hat and they let you know what they think about it. They learn very quickly who is a soft touch for a meal.

They are out there right now, screaming for some more kibble. But they have already had breakfast. They will just have to wait for lunch.

Courtesy of Flickr. Quote by Richard Back