Blue as a Bluebird

After encountering - and confronting - the neighbor out bear baiting yesterday morning, I was pretty down. I find it harder to deal with such people, and living in this state of Idaho. The wolf issue - recent publication of the hunting rules which will (absent an injunction) take effect later this year; prosecutors declining to prosecute egregious cases of unlawful wolf killing because they fear they won't get re-elected; worrying constantly about the wolves in the forest nearby being hunted, or my girls being shot by someone out to kill a wolf - constantly haunts me.

So imagine my wonder and surprise as seeing a Mountain Bluebird, the Idaho State bird, on the railing of my fence yesterday afternoon. The girls were in the yard; I was surprised the bird landed so close to them. I grabbed my camera, opened the sliding glass door to step outside for these photos, and still, it remained. Very calm, very assured that no harm would come its way, at least not at my house.

Doesn't it have a gorgeous blue color? Like Paul Newman's eyes.

If only everyone in this state hunted with a camera rather than a rifle or trap.