Birds and Nature

These pics follow the Bald Eagle after it lifted off and banked to fly downriver. The pic below shows how it is gaining altitude. SeEtta

After keeping an eye, literally, on the birds overhead the Bald Eagle takes off from it's perch. It banks and turns to fly downriver. SeEtta

While I was watching the Bald Eagle from the last post with my spotting scope, I wondered why it kept turning it's head to the side with one eye looking downward and the other looking upward. I thought it might be checking for some prey beneath it but I was wrong. It turned out that this pair of Common Ravens in the top pic was flying above and when they flew off I found there was a pair of Bald Eagles soaring high above. So I think it was literally keeping an eye on these birds. SeEtta

I still have several more video clips and a number of pics from my Texas trip to post but it was just such a great birding day here near home that I had to post these now. I drove up the Bighorn Sheep Canyon that runs along the Arkansas River from just west of Canon City to the town of Howard. Near the town of Cotopaxi I found these Bald Eagle perched on a snag tree on the other side of the highway and the river, between 125-150 feet away--(not close but with my 300mm lens, 1.4 extender and 1.6 multiplier for not having a full frame camera, it was the equivalent of about a 900 mm lens). If you look close, the eagle has a feather stuck on top of it's bill. Just double-click on each pic for close-up views (these pics are good enough quality to enlarge fairly nicely). This might have come from when it groomed itself or possibly from some bird it consumed. SeEtta

I drove up the Bighorn Sheep Canyon that runs along the Arkansas River west of Canon City a few days ago.  This view was taken looking west from Texas Creek.  It was a beautiful day and the water sparkled just like in this pic. 

Last week-end I spent a few hours in the Bighorn Sheep Canyon along the Arkansas River (the area where christo wants to drape his fabric panels over the river), a place I often go birding. I found a flock of about 35-40 Pinyon Jays, and a very birdy area in the Texas Creek BLM lands where several Townsend's Solitaires, a few Robins and some passerines were singing like they were a choir. I found this White-lined Sphinx moth, also known as a hummingbird moth, with several buddies working a very small flower bed in front of the general store in Cotopaxi,CO.