Push of MacGillivray's Warblers into Canon City past few days

This is one of 3 MacGillivray's Warblers I found this morning on the Canon City Riverwalk (on the half mile of the bluff trail from Sell's trailhead to half mile sign). It had caught a greenish worm/caterpillar down in the leaf litter and has it in it's beak in these pics.

I only had of them yesterday but had 4 the day before with most near the McKenzie trail end. Coincidentally (?) birders in Lubbock, TX reported a fallout of MacGillivray's that same day. Though Lubbock is several hundred miles southeast of here some of our migrating birds likely come up through that area. SeEtta

Visit from American Redstart

This female American Redstart was found yesterday morning by local birder Rich. I refound it a little later but it stayed in the thick vegetation and didn't fan it's tail much. 

Today it came out in the open more and fanned it's tail constantly as is characteristic of this species.

As shown on the photos she has large yellow base to tail feathers, yellow on sides, no apparent yellow on wings but some under her wings and along sides which is indicative of a first year female American Redstart. SeEtta

Broad-winged Hawk in flight

I feel bad that my persistence in trying to identify and photograph this subadult Broad-winged Hawk caused it to fly off away from the riparian forest that provided good stop-over habitat and hope it flew to another section of Canon City Riverwalk. This is a photo of it in flight. It shows a moderate amount of dark streaking on it's underparts, some barring on remiges, a wide dark read edge to wings plus barring on tail as noted earlier. SeEtta

More subadult Broad-winged Hawk pics

The top photo of this subadult light morph Broad-winged Hawk shows the whitish supercilium, light auriculars and dark malar stripe quite well. And the wingtips show as quite a bit shorter than the tail tip. SeEtta

Yet another Broad-winged Hawk, a quite shy juvie

This morning I spotted an unusual looking hawk mostly hidden behind tree limbs on the Canon City Riverwalk. When I would get closer to get a better view (closer is relative, always at least 150-200 feet away) it would flush but instead of flying off as Red-tailed Hawks generally do it flew further down the forest to another perch. In my binoculars I could see the distinct whitish supercillium and the bright yellow lores plus unusual looking markings on underparts (binocular view not as close-up as these photos as these are strongly cropped to enlarge the bird).

Photos show additional field marks for sub-adult Broad-winged Hawk: distinct dark malar stripe; light auricular area (should be a little darker than supercilium but bird was too distant to pick up that subtlety of coloration); brown tail with several dark bands and a wider dark subterminal band; secondaries and greater coverts are darkish brown; primaries a panel paler than color of secondaries; dark markings on belly and flanks. SeEtta

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak too

This female Rose-breasted Grosbeak was foraging not far from the male I found yesterday on the Canon City Riverwalk. SeEtta

Rose-breasted Grosbeak on Riverwalk at top of tree

Couldn't get the great photos that those who have Rose-breasted Grosbeak coming to their feeders have gotten but this guy was 60-80 foot up in the top of a large cottonwood tree yesterday.

As can be seen somewhat in these photos, he is eating the new and tender buds coming out on this tree. A female was also in the area eating new buds on the trees. SeEtta

White-throated Sparrow, finally got a photo

I found this White-throated Sparrow earlier this week on the Canon City Riverwalk then refound it yesterday a few hundred feet west of first location. But it stayed in the middle of the messy vegetation--limbs, twigs, leaves, grass and vines--so not able to even try to get a pic. Today I refound it again and got this one shot of it about 30 feet away surrounded by lots of vegetation but a quick clear view. While not a great pic it does show field marks of yellow supraloral spot, well delineated white throat, dark bill, black and white head stripes. SeEtta