Birds and Nature

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers winter in the Canon City,CO area, the furthest west location in Colorado with a regular population (usually several). I first found this male on October 29, 2009 in Centennial Park and have seen it there off and on since then. Today it had snowed about an inch and this sapsucker was not in the mood to be disturbed from it's feeding on phloem in a pine tree--it gave it's mewing/screaming like call after I took a few pics. I stopped taking photos (though not loud, my dslr camera makes a mechanical noise each time I depress the shutter and some birds are disturbed by this) and sat quietly in my car for a few minutes in hopes it would go about it's business. It continued feeding so I snapped a few more pics but it called again. I did not want to further disturb it or cause it to flush from an apparently good spot on this pine tree so I not only stopped photographing the bird but left. I used my Canon xti dslr camera with 400mm super telephoto le...

While waiting for the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the post below to settle down, I spotted this Brown Creeper working a conifer. I watched very quietly while it worked up and down the trunk of the tree. It has a little residue from probing around the tree bark. SeEtta

I found this male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in Centennial Park in Canon City last week. It was an exceptionally shy sapsucker which made it most challenging to get these pics as it reacted to the mechanical clicking of my digital DSLR camera (I turned off the bells when I first got the camera but it has distinct clicking noises when I shoot pics that bothers some birds). This appears to be a different bird than the male sapsucker I found on Oct 29 (see post on Oct 29, 2009) as that bird had extensive bright red on it's crown as well as it's chin and throat while this bird has somewhat limited red on it's crown, a red throat but some white on it's chin. The second pic from the top shows the extensive white barring, much with a buffish tinge, that is distinctive of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. This bird was also much more active than the many other Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers I have seen in not only the Canon City area, but Pueblo, Colorado City and Salida. It hitched its...

These pics are also what I consider intimate views, this time of a Brown Creeper as it probing between the bark of a conifer. Again I am hand-holding the camera--I can't imagine getting these shots if I had to use a tripod as I was under the canopy of the conifer and had to adjust my position quickly as the creeper moved over and under the branches it was working on. Besides lots of small branches in my way, the other big challenge was that it was dark inside the canopy. I think the bottom pic with the view from behind the creeper provides wonderful detail of the feathers on the upperparts of the bird. Double click on each pic for some really close-up views--the detail that shows of the wing feathers is especially good. SeEtta

This male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker has been drilling sapwells in the pine trees at Centennial Park in Canon City. His bright red crown and throat are quite striking. The broad white patch on the wing is barely visible in this pic. View the field marks up close by double-clicking on pic. SeEtta