No matter where you live on this little blue marble, you've no doubt heard the expression about your weather, "Just wait five minutes and it'll change!"  The changes in the weather, that occur here in the Wind River Canyon, are as dramatic as you can get anywhere.  Just last week I was photographing wildflowers, yet again, on my favorite canyon hillside; the temperature was in the low 80's F, and it was a beautiful day; the air smelled of pine and flowers.  This morning, here in the Wind River Canyon, it is snowing on those very same wildflowers.  In fact, I'm surprised that I can get an internet signal through this Spring snowstorm.  But the canyon is green and things are now getting white; strange days.  

     When the weather turns winter-like in the Spring, it chases birds out of the high-country down into this warmer, greener valley.  Periodically we see birds that the books tell us should not be here, or have never been observed in the Wind River Canyon before; in some cases the bird isn't listed as a visitor to Wyoming at all.  And last week I had just such a bird that visited one of our bird feeders; a wild bird we had never seen in nearly sixteen years of living in this mountain paradise.  

     I was on the way to the kitchen for more of the Earl Grey tea that I'm addicted to, when I saw a flash of a large, light-blue bird.  Now, we don't have any large, light-blue birds!  Grabbing my "big-rig" Canon DSLR camera, I headed for the door.  It wasn't difficult to find him, he was making a racket!  Growing up in Cleveland as I did, I knew it had to be a Jay of some kind; I just had absolutely no idea what this noisy, big-beaked bird's name was.  This lovely bird had little fear of me, which was advantageous, but it was overcast and the light wasn't the best, so I made due.  I shot slow for a lens of 300mm, and the image-stabilization was very helpful, as usual; but what was this bird?

     It turned out that the identification, and the research, was more time consuming than I thought it would be, as it usually is.  This bird looked like a Mexican Jay, but it couldn't be, as they don't migrate in this neck of the continent.  His color wasn't right to be a Western Scrub-Jay, so it had to be a Pinyon Jay; another species that has never been documented in the Wind River Canyon before.

Pinyon Jay - Wyoming, Wind River CanyonPinyon Jay Photograhed in Wind River Canyon, Wyoming.      The Pinyon Jay, Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, is monotypic, a genus of only one species....him.  This bird lives only in the Wild West, but usually is seen in flocks.  I suspect this bird to be a younger, dumber bird; why else would he here alone without friends?  Maybe he's got an attitude and difficult to get along with; maybe he's just lost and hungry.  They were first ID'd in 1833, by the Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied expedition in Montana; they were hunting up there.  The Prince had taken an artist, Karl Bodmer; don't miss his paintings of American Indians.  

     Pinyon Jays will pair bond for up to two and a half years; they eat bugs, seeds, fruits and of course pinyon seeds.  They will stash seeds away for future food sources, but will only remember the exact place for a week or so; so says the scientific data.  I would assume some of these seeds end up germinating, so you could say that these birds plant trees!  He was photographed with a shutter speed of 1/320th @ f/7.1, ISO 400; hand held of course, as I prefer in the field.  

     But this all proves a point I constantly postulate; "Keep your camera ready!"  You never, ever know when that alien spaceship will land....keep it handy.

     Writing, photography and digital darkroom by Michael John Balog:  Thank you for reading this week's blog.  Visit my award-winning wildlife photography website @ HogbatsPhotography.com.