Black-throated Sparrows near Canon City,CO

-
As I drove down a gravel road a few miles south of Canon City this morning, I heard some chirping coming from a dry gulch near the road. I stopped and was delighted to see 4-5 Black-throated Sparrows in a small deciduous tree. At least one was an adult and several were in juvenal plumage with a streaky breast but with a bold white supercilium as shown by the two different birds in these pics (while pics not the best, they will enlarge to show very close-up views--just double-click on each pic).
Birds of North America online notes that Black-throated Sparrow adults " feed young for at least 2 wk after nest departure." So I think there is a very good possibility that this is a new Fremont County breeding location for this species. This is a very nice find as there have only been a few locations in southeast Colorado where this species has been documented breeding and most have been quite far south. I will try in the next day or so to refind them in hopes of obtaining more evidence that this is a family group that has bred nearby. SeEtta
c

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