Better pics of Red-throated Loon near Canon City,CO

-
I went back out to Brush Hollow Reservoir before Memorial Day week-end to try for some better views and photos of the Red-throated Loon that is far south of where it should be at this time of year. I was rewarded with closer views, only 2-400 feet away, as the loon preened, stretched and did a little diving when there were fewer fishermen on the shore and in boats to chase it into the middle of the lake. This allowed me to get pretty good pics with my telephoto lens combo (totally over 600 mm eqivalence) when I cropped and lightened them.
This loon appears to be in adult non-breeding/Definitive Basic plumage. The bottom pic shows the white spots on the back that is most prominent in Basic plumage than Alternate plumage. There were some dark smudgy areas on the front part of the loon's neck, possibly indicative of the beginnings of it's molt into Breeding/Definitive Alternate plumage. SeEtta

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spotted Sandpiper Chicks, 3 more days older

-
Image
Two days when I went to check on the Spotted Sandpiper family at Florence River Park I thought they had likely perished--there were two men engaged in gold panning right where the parent sandpiper had been and they had dug some of the sand from the bank where I last saw the sandpiper chicks. Arggh, I was afraid that all this activity, plus a large off leash dog with these people, would have scared the parent away and even if the chicks were successful in hiding in the vegetation they would not survive without a parent at their young age. What a surprise when I returned that evening for one last check to be accosted by the parent sandpiper calling loudly and challenging me by walking right towards me (and my dog). It took awhile for the parent to settle down and for one of the chicks to walk in some grass where I could spot it--the parent had moved the chicks about 150 from the river into an area with a lot of vegetation. I returned day before yesterday and refound the parent and
Read more

Recently fledged Common Raven

-
Image
At the end of March this year I spotted a Common Raven going into a crevice above a rock face of a local cliff area called Castle Rock (as part of it looks sort of like a castle). I started watching this area and observed a pair of Common Ravens spending time around this location. On March 27 I spotted one of the ravens inside the crevice which now had what looked like nesting material in it--the photograph of that is the second pic here. I continued off and on to check this apparent crevice nest. At the end of May I saw what appeared to be a nestling inside the crevice. I continued birding in the riparian forest across the Arkansas River from this cliff area. When I was about a quarter mile away I heard a lot of raven racket and walked to a spot where I could see the cliff area through my binoculars. I could see a lot of raven action with the parent birds calling loudly so I expected that the nestling may have fledged or they were trying to get it to fledge. I went back t
Read more