Birds and Nature

I spotted this neat bird, a member of the goatsucker family, perched in a tree at the Old Hildago Pumphouse grounds a few days ago. This species is definitely not found in Colorado and I have never had an opportunity to even hear one calling let alone see one during my birding trips to more eastern locations. So this was a real neat experience for me--yes, especially because I found the bird (not just photographed a bird in an area where it had been seen by others as many birds have been). There was an irony to this sighting--I saw it the day before I got this good photo and took several photos but I had forgotten to put a memory card in my camera so I didn't have any photos of it. As it had flushed I was bummed but kept looking and I refound it and got a couple of photos though this one the next day is so much better, I am pretty proud of it. And be aware that the gleam visible in the eye of this bird is from natural light as I did not use flash (I avoid flash if at all possi

In addition to the rare warblers below, there were a lot of other neat migrants at the South Padre Island Convention Center Gardens this past week including 2 male Painted Buntings. Interesting how the light changes the shade of the colors on this/these bird(s) (not sure if these were of the same or different birds) There was only one Rose-breasted Grosbeak. But a group of 5 male Dickcissels that fed together and also perched near each other. SeEtta

I am behind on uploading here, I got these beauties at South Padre Island Convention Center gardens last week. The Prairie Warblers was a lifer  for me and I got very good views.  I had seen a Canada Warbler where it was a rare vagrant in Colorado several years ago but got better views this time. The bottom pic would have been so good if wasn't for that little branch in the way, oh well. SeEtta