Pronghorn herd near Pueblo, CO

-
Boy, I've been distracted by a problem with not being able to access a number of pics I took in So Texas-now recovered I can get back to posting starting with these pronghorn then later I will post some of those So Texas pics. I spotted these beautiful pronghorn as the leaders began crossing a state highway in front of me. I pulled over immediately as there were no other vehicles around and I wanted the herd to quickly get across before vehicles that usually travel well over the 65 mph speed limit came and put them at risk. This strategy worked but I had not realized just how many pronghorn were in the herd--right around 30 animals, which is one of the largest herds I have seen in western Pueblo County in recent memory.
So it took them awhile to all, each following single file, to go under the fence on one side of the road then get across to the other side and safely get under the fence then into a field on the other side. And they did so safely though soon afterwards several vehicles flew through. I then slowly drove up nearer to them to get these photos before they wandered off.
As I edited these pics I realized that I can see the rib cages on several of the pronghorn. I don't recall having seen this on pronghorn before but I am not sufficiently experienced with this species to know for sure if this is a sign of underweight (ie, horses in good health can have their rib cages visible). However I would not be surprised if they were underweight since this and much of southern Colorado was in an 'exceptional' drought last growing season and native grasses suffered. 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

Band-tailed Pigeons, the mountain pigeons

-
Image
I spotted a small flock of about 9 or 10 of these Band-tailed Pigeons in a tiny unincorporated town called Greenwood which is south of Canon City about 20 miles (via winged flight). The homes in Greenwood are right up against the San Isabel National Forest and forests are the habitat for these mountain pigeons. The white collar on the nape of this species can be seen in the pic above.  The broad pale gray terminal band on a darker upper tail (and below the light undertail coverts) is best seen in pic below.  SeEtta
Read more