Birds and Nature

I was delighted last week to host a flock of 25-30 Bushtits in my yard. I have only seen Bushtits in my yard on one other occasion since I lived in my current house the past 12 years. The Bushtits appeared to feed in my pine trees and pyracantha shrub. When I caught site of this Bushtit, it had apparently just bathed and was grooming causing it to look really bushy (and it was on the other side of my pine tree and it was a cloudy day so a difficult pic to take so not good to enlarge). Because I took this pic through the tree branches, this bird was unaware it was seen or photographed--it shook the water from it's feathers repeatedly, preened fluffed up it's feathers. SeEtta

I found these little male Bushtits in a small flock in the same general area, in a dry wash, as the Williamson's Sapsuckers, near Canon City,CO. These acrobatic little birds were feeding as shown in rabbit-brush, a wonderful native plant whose seeds are eaten by a number of bird species after it's blossoms that provide nectar for butterflies, moths, bees and other insects are gone. SeEtta

I took these pics of a female Bushtit (females have light eyes) as it foraged in a large patch of rabbitbrush. I am really proud of how nice these came out as they are handheld. I think these pics compete well with the top pics on the internet (via google) that were taken at feeders, which provide more stable photo conditions than I had as I followed this and the other Bushtits in the flock as they moved up & down, & back & forth, upside down through the vegetation. Since the pics came out so sharp, each pic is followed by a super close-up from the same pic. I photographed these Bushtits just off a parking area for the Canon City Riverwalk. FYI, this is Psaltriparus minimus plumbeus, the Bushtit subspecies in Colorado that is gray-crowned with grayer feathers all over. SeEtta