Birds and Nature

It didn't take long this morning to realize there had been a 'fall out' of Gray Flycatchers due to the socked in rainy, sometimes snowy weather in Canon City . I saw at least 25 Gray Flycatchers during a mile long walk. Many of them were actively feeding.ngng Click on each pic to enlarge for best viewing.  Several years ago I saw a similar 'fall out' of Gray Flycatchers due to weather. SeEtta

As I was walking on the Canon City Riverwalk close to 8 pm tonight my dog Chase alerted that he heard something in the vegetation just off the trail. Thinking it was maybe a squirrel or even a racoon--surprise, when I looked I was a little confused as I thought it was a bear but it looked like it had a blond overcoat on. This is the first 'blond' black bear I have seen (they do come in a number of colors). As it sunk it that I was only about 25-30 feet away from the bear (it was behind trees as shown in last pic) I got a few pics (this is what happens when I leave my camera in the car, these are cellphone pics) and started to walk away. As I did the bear started to come out from behind the trees which concerned me so I walked backwards so I could watch it. It kept looking a me as I looked it. When it came further I ordered (in a gruff voice as I would a dog) "Bear, you stay there." Fortunately as it came it further it became clear it just wanted to go the o...

Both the Western Tanager and Lazuli Bunting are first of the year birds in Canon City (tho I saw W Tanager on S Padre Island 2 weeks ago so not my first of the year). I spotted 4-5 male Western Tanagers in a one mile walk on the Canon City Riverwalk. Heard a lot more Lazuli Buntings than observed--just this one observed, heard at least 4-5 others singing. This Black-headed Grosbeak had been singing up a storm as were several more of his species today and in the past few days. At least a dozen Cedar Waxwings were in the feeding on fruit of hackberry trees and on tender new buds in other trees in Veteran's Park. I also spotted a first of the year for Canon City male Rose-breasted Grosbeak on the tip top of a 60+ ft tall cottonwood so no pics, and likely a female but too many branches and leaves in that distance to be sure. And I spotted a first of the year for Canon City male Bullock's Oriole but in top of tall tree so no pic for him either. SeEtta

This hummingbird was spotted yesterday on a Forest Service/Arkansas Valley Audubon Society field trip to the Canon City Riverwalk. She is sitting on her partially completed nest in the pics. The nest is 25-30 feet above a parking lot for the Riverwalk trail system.B The pic below is the original photo that I cropped heavily to produce the pic just above. SeEtta

I found this Merlin last week but had computer problems so could not upload the photos. As Merlins are uncommon winter visitors in Canon City I believe it is the same Merlin as was seen by my friend Cathy near the Abbey the week before and likely the same as was seen by friend Linda on the Riverwalk before that. I first spotted it perched in large tree on the other side of the Arkansas River from the Canon City Riverwalk where I was walking--see bottom pic for that view. After watching it stretch and look around a lot for about 5 minutes it flew over to the river and harassed a pair of Mallard Ducks, in fact flushed them though it is way too small to be a real threat to them. This is a Taiga subspecies of Merlin. Per Birds of North Americ a online, "...breeds from Newfoundland to w. Alaska south into the n. US (Maine and n. Vermont, New Hampshire, and NY; n. Great Lakes states, and w. mountain states)." . SeEtta

After this feisty Merlin buzzed the Mallards and chased off a couple of Eurasian-collared Doves in trees across the river, it did a neat acrobatic flight show along the Arkansas River where I caught the above shot. I took these pics almost 2 weeks ago (and had computer stop working so just got it back up and running) and haven't seen this beauty since then. SeEtta

Yesterday I was delighted to find at least 10 Yellow-rumped Warblers foraging in a mixed flock on the Canon City Riverwalk with at least a half dozen Ruby-crowned Kinglets, several Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees, several Downy Woodpeckers, a couple of Am Robins, at least 2 Brown Creepers and one White-breasted Nuthatch. Since Yellow-rumped Warblers usually overwinter in the Canon City area it is not possible to know if these were migrators or some that will stick around. Though the bottom pic of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet shows little of it's head (but part of the white eye ring is visible) it does nicely show the two white wing bars and the dark bar below them and the green edging on their coverts. SeEtta There was a Black Phoebe on the MacKenzie end of the Riverwalk on Friday but have not seen it again. SeEtta

Summer is such fun with all the newly fledged youngsters that look so little like the adults of their species to add a lot of challenge to identification. Fortunately if one can locate the parent doing the feeding as I did for this recent fledgling the identification is obvious--these Yellow Warbler fledglings followed their dad from tree to shrub, begging to be fed. The male bird was very busy finding food for them and also getting them to follow him to a safer location off the main river trail of the Canon City Riverwalk (actually I stood guard for awhile to let these birds move across the trails to further from the trail as many walkers coming by had large dogs that could if nothing else step on one of the young birds). SeEtta

The last two days I have seen, each day, approximately 75 warblers and all but a few have been Wilson's Warblers. And most of the Wilson's Warblers have been foraging an and around two stands of Common Reed (I suspect the non-native species) on the Canon City Riverwalk (bottom photo is one in those reeds). The one stand of reeds is about 50 feet long by only 25 feet wide but 25 Wilson's Warblers flew out of it this morning when I gave a chip call that apparently sounded to them by an alarm call (who knew). The other and larger stand of reeds had a MacGillivray's and 2 Orange-crowned Warblers foraging inside when I bushwacked to it yesterday (too wet this morning to get real close). A few Wilson's Warblers were also in other stands of different vegetation in various places along the 2 1/2 miles of trail I checked. None were in any of the many willow stands. SeEtta

I was really surprised when I saw about 15 or more Hermit Thrushes in less than 15 minutes in and around the Sell's Lake parking area for the Canon City Riverwalk. I subsequently found 2 more Hermit Thrush almost 3 miles east of there near the McKenzie Ave parking area for the Riverwalk plus one more on agricultural lands about a half mile north of the Riverwalk. This is also an unusual number of birds for this area as this species is usually seen as single birds in Fremont County. Seems likely the snow storm and winds yesterday were involved in this also. SeEtta