Birds and Nature

I spotted this male Wilson's Warbler in Florence River Park yesterday. About a week ago I saw a very shy Western Tanager in that park, another on the Canon City Riverwalk and earlier this week I saw one in Red Canyon Park. Landbird migration is on. SeEtta

While we usually think of Ladder-backed Woodpeckers in pinyon-juniper habitat in Colorado, they are known to inhabit lowland riparian forest in and south of the U.S. I found this male in Florence River Park last week.  I must say I have rarely seen them in riparian habitat, the only other sighting for me was along a creek on the other side of Florence a few years ago.  SeEtta

I took this photo on July 28 of the female in the pair of rare Scissor-tailed Flycatchers that were nesting south of Florence. I was on my way out of town and forgot I had this photo that was good enough to crop a lot for a closer view than I had published before. And it turned out this was the last day the female was seen that I have been able to find out-though I was out of town and she may have still been around another few days (when I returned and looked for them on Aug 2 I did not find the female so queried other birders). Do not know if something happened to the female or if there was a nest failure that caused her to leave. The location has snakes (per landowner) and there could be badgers around (a few weeks ago I saw a badger late in the day while driving about a mile from this location). There also was bad weather with thunderstorms and heavy rain during that period. And though the male stayed in the area for more than a week after the female had not been seen, he m...

Post by SeEtta Moss . These are White-lined Sphinx moths I took with my Samsung Galaxy III smartphone. The top three pics were in the Bighorn Sheep Canyon area west of Canon City a few days ago. Post by SeEtta Moss . This moth is nectaring on Rocky Mountain beeplant (Cleome serrulata ),  that is native in many state s. Post by SeEtta Moss . I found this perched moth last week on the back of my car that was in a parking lot in Lamar,CO. Post by SeEtta Moss . Shortly after I spotted the first one, I found that there were now two and they were mating. Post by SeEtta Moss . I found this perched moth last week on the back of my car that was in a parking lot in Lamar,CO. Shortly after I spotted the first one, I found that there were now two and they were mating. Since I had to leave and there was little vegetation in and around the parking lot I drove slowly about a block so I did not dislodge the 'couple'. Once I got to a nic...