Birds and Nature

These are a few of a herd of 8+ Rocky Mtn bighorn sheep I spotted grazing not far off of H50 in Bighorn Sheep Canyon which begins about 11 miles east of my town, Canon City, CO. Note the gorgeous native blue grama grass that surrounds the ewe in the top pic--this location is BLM lands and our public lands can protect our native ecosystems as has been done in this location. Bighorn sheep spend most of the year in separated herds composed either of mature rams or maternal herds composed mostly of females but including lambs and young rams like the one in bottom pic. I took these pics from my car so I wouldn't disturb these bighorns and this pays off with better photos. Since I was able to stabilize my camera on the window the photos can be even further enlarged than the cropping I did so double click on each one for really close-up views (the teeth on the ewe in the top pic even show a little when pic is further enlarged. SeEtta

Double-click on this and the other sapsucker pics I posted today for super close-up views. This is another female Williamson's Sapsucker that I refound. This close up came out very nicely. Be aware that my digital camera and lens set-up provides the equivalent of about 900 mm in telephoto view--that's about 18X's the normal view. I took the photo from my car and left quickly without flushing the bird though it did stop feeding for about a minute when it heard my camera sounds. SeEtta

Today I found both a male and a female Williamson's Sapsucker in the town of Florence as well as 4 female and 2 male Williamson's Sapsuckers in Canon City including this female. I was surprised just how different these three pics of the same sapsucker look--I took all within one minute but the sun really made a difference in the lighting. In the bottom pic it appears, when the pic is super enlarged, that there is a small bubble at the end of the bird's bill--or maybe it's just a drop of sap?? SeEtta

After being careful in looking for those sapsuckers that are overwintering so as not to interfere with feeding or flush them (using valuable energy to escape) after the extremely harsh weather recently, I was less reticent to do a more complete survey as part of the Great Backyard Bird Count, since the weather has been much warmer for over a week (sap appears to be flowing again and not frozen). I refound this male Red-naped Sapsucker as well as the male that has been in Florence. The top pic gives a good view of how the red feathers on the throat of Red-naped Sapsuckers invade the black feathers that form an incomplete frame around the throat that distinguishes this species from Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. SeEtta >

This is a PBS video.