Magpie

My buddy Brian and I are still on central and eastern time so we got up very early this morning to go to work. Our thoughts were that we'd get there and check our email, get our coffee and settle in for our class which started this morning.
When we arrived at the building, apparently these people are on mountain time so we were about 30 minutes early and had to sit in the parking lot. While sitting there, we saw a beautiful black and white bird with long iridescent tail feathers. It was unafraid of us and came very close.
We sat and watched this bird building a nest. Spring is fairly close here too. Once the crew finally showed up, I asked a local about the bird we had seen. "Oh that's a magpie he said." It looked like a panda bear with wings. As you well know I love birds.
The terrain here around Colorado Springs reminds me somewhat of California just south of San Francisco. The grass is a golden brown with rocks as big as Buicks everywhere. The air is clean and the people seem friendly.
I hope to get out of class early enough tomorrow to drive around a little more to shoot some more photos to share once I get home.