Birds and Nature

It is has been some time since I found clear Chihuahuan Ravens in my area. Usually I find ravens that are likely hybrid Chihuahuan-Common Ravens or just those whose characteristics are intermediate. Correctly identifying Chihuahuan Ravens in Colorado is fraught with hazards as explained in this Colo Field Ornithologists journal article and I am not inclined these days to call one a Chihuahuan without some definitive field marks. This raven and a second one showed the definitive field mark of having nasal bristles clearly more than half the length of the bill. Of less reliability they appeared to have thicker (deep) bills and the throat feathers look less shaggy than those found on Common Ravens. SeEtta

Yesterday (Saturday) I got the top 3 pics of the female Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that is nesting south of Florence, CO when flew near to where I was parked (the driveway several hundred feet north of the nest tree). I watched her catch a couple of insects and could see that at least one was a grasshopper. The pic below is very interesting both because I caught her in mid-flight so the salmon-pink underwing patches show nicely but also because there is a grasshopper in the air just above her. In a photo below that I took today the female had lost the grasshopper apparently because it's leg came off so this might be the reason for the grasshopper in this pic too. The next 4 pics that I took today, again when the female foraged near to where I was parked, show a very interesting sequence. In the pic above the female has a good sized grasshopper in her bill that she has caught. In the pic now above the grasshopper has come out of her bill--note the grasshopper leg no...