A beakful of bugs

This beautiful Red-winged Blackbird female took me by surprise when she collected insects and then flew up to the fence fairly near to where I was standing (no cropping necessary). Usually, these birds fly in the opposite direction! The males of this species are flashy, but the females definitely have a beauty of their own. I love the little hint of orange that you see on some of them.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_Blackbird

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_blackbird/id

Oh, my gosh, we are having torrential rain!!! It must have rained heavily during the night, as there were large puddles everywhere, but it has started to rain heavily just now. Oh, the thousands of poor people who have already suffered tremendous damage from the Flood of the Century during the last two weeks! I feel hesitant to check online or my TV to see if anywhere has new flooding. On Friday evening, one of our communities called Sunnyside had flash floods. Really, enough is enough! Not good weather for all the visitors who decided to go down to the Stampede Grounds today, either.