Birds and Nature

Though I have continued to observe one or more young Black Phoebes every day (except one day when I couldn't look for them due to out of town meeting) west of the Sell's Lake parking lot for the Canon City Riverwalk it has become more difficult to get good photos as I believe the young phoebes have attained independence. There are fewer calls to help me relocate them. I took these photos on August 6. In the top pic the phoebe was on the other side of the Arkansas River, about a 80-90 feet away. In the middle pic the young phoebe had flown across the river and was less than 40 feet away. And the bottom photo was again across the river. The bird in the front is a fledgling and I believe the bird in the back is a parent bird-I watched the fledgling chase the other bird a little as fledglings do to their parents in hope of a handout. SeEtta

/ I got this photo yesterday morning of a parent Black Phoebe that has been accompanying the fledglings. This phoebe was perched on a fence around Sell's Lake about 150 feet from the publicly accessible location where it could be seen so this photo is heavily cropped and does not show features as well as closer photos (like those I posted below of the fledgling). The lighter edges to it's wing feathers, a plumage characteristic found on adult birds is clearly visible as is the darker black of it's head compared to it's body. This bird appears to be molting a number of feathers on it's underparts. When the photo is enlarged further it can be seen that it's rectices (tail feathers) are more rounded than found on the fledgling. I didn't get any more photos of the fledglings yesterday or today. The parent bird moved them more distant on Sell's Lake yesterday and today when I refound 2 of them (at least one was in juvenal plumage) they were on the ot