Birds and Nature

The top photo was almost full screen. And I like to add photos with back views, that are eschewed by most photographers, since most of us see birds from behind as well as from the front so helpful to see how they look from that view. I might add that I was concerned about whether this population of Grace's Warblers had been impacted by the very dense gas drilling (fracking)that has happened in that area as I haven't been up there in several years. There were gas wells peppered throughout this ponderosa forest and I could hear them as I drove through the area and also when I was watching these birds. It isn't possibly to know if there have been impacts as this population has never been surveyed so can't know if there are fewer now--sad that we have so little info about so many birds. SeEtta

After I snapped a couple of photos of the bird in a conifer 80 feet away, it flew right into a tree near where I was standing. Instead of being bothered by the mechanical noise that my dslr camera makes when I take a photo it actually appeared to be drawn to it as it came so close in the tree that I couldn't focus my big telephoto lens set-up. So I was able to get some unusually close photos which I only cropped a little to bring up close and personal. I suspect that the fact these birds are located so distant from most birders (it is almost a 3 hour drive for me) that they have not been previously exposed to being photographed and aren't disturbed by many people. There are lots of gas wells and this areas has many large acreage ranchettes but since these small warblers are often high up in conifers there are likely not often even seen by people. SeEtta

Since I had to drive to Trinidad (the one in Colorado, not the island) yesterday to give a presentation to a watershed group I went early so I could do some birding in western Las Animas County as I don't get down that way often. I missed on the Hepatic Tanager at an established site just south of Walsenburg so headed to an established site for Grace's Warbler southeast of Aguilar,CO. I was rewarded by at least one singing Grace's Warbler and possibly a pair. This species is rare in eastern Colorado as most populations are in western Colorado. More pics to come. SeEtta