Birds and Nature

I photographed this Northern Parula yesterday morning at Neals Lodges where the Tropical Parula continued to be present. A group of us saw and heard the Northern Parula yesterday morning but could not see it well and it's song sounded so much like the Tropical that we believed it was a likely a second Tropical Parula. One of the group uploaded his photos on his computer and saw the black and orange bands on it's chest (also has split white eye ring and the yellow does not extend into the bluish face like on a Tropical Parula) Lesson learned: just because it sounds like a zebra and looks basically like a zebra and there is another zebra in the area, don't believe it isn't a horse until you check the field marks. SeEtta

The Northern Parula I found in my yard this afternoon was kind enough to show off it's very yellow throat and black band across it as shown in top pic. In the bottom pic the bird was going after the fat worm seen in the photos on the previous post and what a very yellow mouth it has. His green back shows well in this photo as do his white eye crescents.  The other field marks--bluish gray hood and wings plus white wing bars are visible in all pics. SeEtta

Yesterday I was pleased with the mini-fall out in my yard of neotropical migrants though none was rare at all. This morning all that remained were the Gray Catbird and the buntings that have been here for a week or so. So I birded the Canon City Riverwalk (actually I live less than 500 feet from the greenbelt that is the bluff over the Riverwalk) but no sign of the Yellow-rumped Warblers that visited my yard last night. When I got home around 1 pm and stepped out of my car, I heard a buzzy warbler singing above me and found this male Northern Parula in my Purple Ash trees. I watched it for almost 10 minutes as it foraged actively high in the tree foliage where it got a nice fat worm as shown in it's beak in the top two pics. I have a photo in the next post of the bird with it's beak open wide as it went for the worm. SeEtta