Birds and Nature

This very rare eastern Cape May Warbler was found by Brandon Percival and Van Truan 2 days ago in Pueblo City Park.  I ran into Brandon yesterday there and we looked for it for about 45 minutes before it showed itself in one of pine trees near the administration building. This was one of the most cooperative warblers as it foraged in the lower branches of the tree and stayed in that same tree for an hour as we got great views and photo opportunities.  More Later.  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