Birds and Nature

I was very surprised yesterday when this Townsend's Solitaire landed less than 10 feet away and stayed put while I photographed it. I have never found this species to be quite so tolerant of humans. And I was standing out in the open and had been taking photos so it would have heard the sounds of the mechanical shutter on my dslr releasing. There were several Townsend's Solitaire nearby and one had sang their sweet warbling song that brightens a winter day. Both pics are the same, just the one on top was severely cropped to get a super close-up view. SeEtta

I should have put this photo in earlier, it is actually the same as the top photo in the entry right below but not cropped. I think it provides an interesting view of how high up in this conifer this little Northern Pygmy-Owl was perched. And it is likely why I kept thinking I heard it calling from different locations (and then looked in those directions rather than up where it was)--when they turn their heads their call sounds like it is coming from a different location and with it up this high it had me looking in all the wrong places. SeEtta

The eyes and light eyebrows of the Northern Pygmy-Owl can be seen in the top pic as the owl was looking down at me in this photo. If you look hard you can see the beak though the falling snowflakes are better seen. In the bottom pic the owl is perched facing my direction but it's head is turned to the side to look at something other than me (which I am glad for as it is important that these owls are able to watch for predators and look for food, not just focus on birders). This pic does give the best view of the narrow black streaks on the belly of the owl which are framed by whitish sides. Interestingly this is only about a hundred feet from where I found a pair of Northern Pygmy-Owls in April, 2008 ( see photos and post about that in my old blog) that were engaged in 'allopreening' (mutual preening), singing and a most unusual melodic singing that is still a mystery. SeEtta

I found this Northern Pygmy-Owl calling from the very top of this 60-80 foot tall conifer (in the center right of the video). Since Northern Pygmy-Owls are only about 7 inches tall it cannot be seen in the video but can be clearly heard as it gives it's repetitive toot calls as well as those of a Mountain Chickadee that was roused by the touting.  It also did some trilling but it was given in short bursts so I didn't get it on the video.  This location in Chaffee County, Colorado is about 9,000 feet and though it wasn't snowing when I got there, it was snowing moderately when I took the video and these photos. With the backlighting form the overcast sky, the falling snow and the distance, these are the best photos I could get (and they are severely cropped to enlarge this little owl). Though not very clear this pic does show this owl's tail the best. I did use taped playback to solicit this owl and used my own whistled toots that it did respond to but stopped both ...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Organization (NOAA) released it's latest monthly State of the Climate Report which noted the following significant weather phenomena:   " U.S. Temperature Highlights — September September was the fourth consecutive month with above-average U.S. temperatures. It followed the fourth warmest summer on record. Most states had above-average temperatures, and several others experienced temperatures ranking among their top 10 warmest: Rhode Island (third warmest), New Mexico (fourth), New Jersey (fourth), Colorado (fifth), Massachusetts (sixth), Florida (seventh), Connecticut (seventh), New Hampshire (seventh), Arizona (ninth) and Maine (ninth). Regionally, the Southwest climate region experienced its third warmest September on record. Only the East North Central climate region had below-normal temperatures. An unusual heat wave affected Southern California the last week of September....

After an appointment in Pueblo, I detoured to the San Isabel National Forest near Greenwood, CO this afternoon. It was a little cooler and very peaceful as I was the only one in the area I drove into. I (and my 2 dogs who had been sleeping while I just enjoyed the quiet) had been very quiet for quite a while, I stepped out of my car. When I turned around to get back in the car I was very surprised to see a bear cub just 40 feet away on the other side of the car. I quickly but carefully got into my car to get my camera trying not to scare the young bear. However, it had stood up on it's back legs to smell the air and as soon as it got a whiff of human it ran quickly into a nearby gulch and I never got a chance to get a photo. What a bummer as I have never been that close to a bear in the wild when I was not safely inside my car (of course, since I was inches away from being in my car I wasn't fearful but it did feel like I was out there with the cub). This looked like a y...

I saw this pretty Red-tailed Hawk in the vicinity of Lake Henry, Colorado. A member of the Western subspecies of Red-tailed Hawks called calurus , with it's intermediate plumage it is sometimes referred to as a Rufous morph. SeEtta

Today I birded in the La Junta, Colo area and found two adult Bald Eagles perched near Lake Holbrook. These pics are of one of those eagles. I was delighted to get these pics without disturbing the eagles. It doesn't take a skillful bird photographer to flush birds when photographing them, it does take skill to get good pics without disturbing birds.

Birding yesterday at Antero Reservoir yielded a number of interesting birds including this Yellow-billed Loon that stayed for several minutes fishing relatively close to shore (compared with many loons that I have seen as distant dots in my spotting scope) as I watched with Colorado birder, John. Another arctic species, only juveniles like this wandered down to Colorado occasionally. Though the bottom pic is mostly duplicative, I posted it as it gives a better view of the size and shape of the loon's bill. SeEtta