Birds and Nature

.I birded parts of the Comanche  National Grasslands yesterday. As I drove slowly on a dirt road a few miles away from dispersed ranches I was surprised by this recently fledged hawk perched on the ground less than 25 feet from me. I watched quietly for a few minutes to see that it appeared uninjured and unconcerned about my presence.  I didn't see anything nearby where it might have left a nest and there were no other hawks around. I drove on with no apparent impact on it and it was gone when I drove back past it about 20 minutes later. I expect this is a young Red-tailed Hawk unless someone sees field marks I am missing.

Spotted up to 80 of the sulfur butterflies mud puddling in Crowley County,  Colorado 3 days ago. https://youtu.be/8d67oXWU02w

 https://sites.tufts.edu/babybirds/common-name/heronsegrets/

 Young bear visiting Pathfinder Park in Fremont County. Like a normal bear it took off when it heard by 30 lb dog bark at it from my car. More bear photos and video at https://birdsandnature.blogspot.com/search?q=bear  SeEtta

(Click on Read More  to see 3 additional photos) I spotted this Peregrine trying to dry off from a drenching rain when this Common Raven tried to chase it out of the neighborhood with aggressive harassment.  Note that the raven looks bigger than the falcon because it is closer to the camera.  It was quite surprising to find this Peregrine Falcon where it had landed which was in a residential area of the city so it must have been soaked to land there.  The raven wasn't the only neighborhood bird that didn't like this visitor.  A couple of blackbirds were perched below the Peregrine and the bottom pic shows it watching them.    SeEtta

It didn't take long this morning to realize there had been a 'fall out' of Gray Flycatchers due to the socked in rainy, sometimes snowy weather in Canon City . I saw at least 25 Gray Flycatchers during a mile long walk. Many of them were actively feeding.ngng Click on each pic to enlarge for best viewing.  Several years ago I saw a similar 'fall out' of Gray Flycatchers due to weather. SeEtta