Birds and Nature

A friend of mine here in Canon City lives in an area with a lot of Scaled Quail. She feeds the birds and the Scaled Quail come into her yard not only to eat but to rest in a safe location. The Scaled Quail in the pic above is a male sunning himself.  The tiny chicks below were 30 feet away-used a long lens and also cropped to provide very close views. In the pic above the mother quail is lying in the grass while her offspring explore nearby. While I observed from distances no closer than 30 feet away and from inside my car the mother quail was always quite close to the chicks as shown below. I used a long camera lens to get close appearing views. And the male quail was nearby, standing guard as shown in the pic below. The mother quail brought her offspring to a feeding area provided by my friend where they are eating seed fallen from a feeder above. Below is a brief video clip in which both the Scaled Quail parents are seen escorting their very young offspring...

A few days ago as I birded in Florence, CO, a little town near Canon City, I was surprised to find 5 male and at least 1 female Bobolink. Though I have seen Bobolink in this hay field previously it has been a number of years. And I was delighted to photograph this female Bobolink as they are not always easy to find. The best though was the very brief video clip of the two male Bobolink singing their bubbly song. SeEtta Bobolinks singing from SeEtta Moss on Vimeo .