I just saw a Stellar’s Jay — a lovely rascal, ocean blue and iridescent with a sweeping black crest — carefully inspecting my paper birch tree…

I went down to the Big River to write about ducks. While I was doing this, I noticed a dead gull on the end of a rocky spit. I decided to go evaluate the gull, and incidentally, scare the bejeebers out of 40 Rock Pigeons who happened to be snoozing there.

It’s almost winter, and telephone poles in Big Sky country are dotted with hawks, kestrels, and Northern Shrikes.