Birds and Nature

I only had a few minutes to see what birds had come in to the Canon City Riverwalk this morning due to an out of town appointment. As I looked in the mature cottonwoods by the river for a Plumbeous Vireo I spotted, I noticed this Black-chinned Hummingbird sitting on a branch about 35 feet above the ground. Upon further inspection I could see she had already built this nest on the branch and it just blended in very well. SeEtta

I found this pretty adult male Yellow Warbler in Florence River Park where it was singing it's little heart out. This one has quite well defined chestnut streaks. SeEtta

I have seen this Eastern Phoebe several times in the Florence River Park, which is adjacent to the Arkansas River about 15 miles east of Canon City in the small town of Florence. I noted that this bird is in formative plumage--also called "First Basic" or "Basic I" (in this case a first spring bird)--because it has quite pointed rectices (tail feathers) that are clearly seen in the bottom pic. From Birds of North America online: "Retained juvenal primary coverts, primaries, and rectrices also usually browner (more faded), narrower, and more pointed, especially with wear in spring." SeEtta

Though the facial skin on this ibis is blue as found on Glossy Ibis, I noticed while looking at it in my spotting scope that the bare skin went around the back of the eye-a characteristic of White-faced Ibis. Also, depending on the light and the angle of the bird to me, I could see that the eye was reddish and not the dark brown found on Glossy Ibis. Upon further examination of my photos I could see a plum coloration to the bare skin located between the lines forming the border of the facial skin, a characteristic of a hybrid plegadis as identified by Arterburn and Grzybowski in 'Hybridization Between Glossy and White-faced Ibis' . I also saw two ibis that looked like pure Glossy Ibis but could not get photos of reasonable quality as they were both feeding actively so moving in and out of the large flock. SeEtta

Back home doing some birding in flooded agricultural fields in nearby Florence produced two Marbled Godwits. These are pretty rare in my area which is semi-arid with few bodies of water or wetlands or remaining prairie areas. They stayed to the back of the dark ibis though it seemed the ibis stayed a little distance from them. SeEtta