Birds and Nature

"If you have worked hard to get close to a great subject or a flock of birds—remember that working the edge of a flock is usually best, be sure to exit as carefully as you approached so that you do not disturb the birds. And that is true whether you are by yourself or with a large group. I have on countless occasions seen a selfish photographer who is finished working a bird or a group of birds simply stand up when they were done thus flushing the bird(s). That is like saying, “I am done and I do not care at all about you or the birds…” ' I,too, have seen many photographers and birders do this. This was written by the famous photographer Arthur Morris and is part of larger treatise 'Field Etiquette for Nature Photographers' on the BirdPhotographers.net website. SeEtta

Awesome video of Osprey catching multiple (5+) fish in one scoop, then a good size flounder under 3 feet of water then another Osprey taking about a 5 lb steelhead trout that it can barely fly off with. This fantastic video clip is from Archive.org: "Wonderful footage of an osprey catching fish. Hovering at moderate height, the osprey dramatically plunges down feet first to snatch fish from the water's surface. A shake of the head as it emerges from the water; the osprey carries its skilfully captured prey with its long talons. More osprey videos can be found on www.arkive.org, along with videos of other birds of prey, fish and thousands more fascinating species." "ARKive ( http://www.arkive.org ) is a unique global initiative, gathering together into one centralised digital library, films, photographs and audio recordings of the world's species. ARKive is leading the 'virtual' conservation effort - finding, sorting, cataloguing and copying the key...

This is a fantastic video from Cornell Lab of Ornithology--gorgeous birds with fascinating behavior with wonderful videography. SeEtta

As below, the increased sunlight allowed me to get these two additional close-ups of the male Red-naped Sapsucker in the dry gulch/wash I have followed. I was happy to get some views of it's yellow belly though they don't show up as bright as they did since the sun was behind the bird. Visible are some of the sap wells in this siberian-type elm. I returned today to see if he was still there but I did not see him and expect he may have continued his migration travels. SeEtta

Yesterday the sun was shining better and though this Red-naped Sapsucker stayed in the shade, I was able to get this close-up that highlights his bright red throat and crown. And I got the pic below when he was stretching, providing a rarely seen view of the underside of his wings.  SeEtta

This is a cute video clip from Woodstock Sanctuary (tho about domestic ducks). The moral of this story is you can lead a duck to water, even through him in, but you can't make him swim-lol. SeEtta

I was surprised to find the Orange-crowned Warbler shown above and several Yellow-rumped Warblers including the one below in the same dry gulch/wash where I have found migrating sapsuckers. I think many if not most of us associate riparian areas, and other places with water (or parks,etc where irrigation is done) as locations where warblers species are found during migration. It does make some sense that dry gulches/washes might be suitable migration corridors for at least a limited number of warblers since these areas catch most of the water that runs off during storms so they provide the most healthy trees and shrubs, and a higher likelihood of insects and small fruit that they might eat. I returned today and saw one Orange-crowned Warbler and a few Yellow-rumps, likely the same birds from yesterday that are using this area as a migration stop-over as they follow the dry gulch/wash down from their higher elevation breeding areas (6,500 to 9,500 per Colo Breeding Bird Atlas I...

In the fall of 2010 I found and followed several Williamson's Sapsuckers drilling sap wells in a complex of siberian-type elm trees south of Canon City that were in a dry gulch/wash located in pinyon juniper habitat. I noted some thoughts at that time that they these sapsuckers, that breed in conifer forests and especially aspen stands at higher elevation (7,000 feet+) in Colorado, might be using these dry gulches/washes for migration. Last year was a poor year for Williamson's Sapsuckers around Canon City but this year got off to an early start when I found 2 males and a female in Lakeside Cemetery on August 28, a good month before I have previously seen this species here. Since then I have found several more Williamson's in the area including the these in the top two pics here that were on the siberian-type elm tree (only 2 trunks as much of the complex was destroyed last year) in the dry gulch/wash where I found them 2 years ago. And yesterday I found the R...