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

Both dipper parents were making repeated trips to bring food to hungry nestlings in this nest at Texas Creek. The dipper above has what appears to be some type of worm like invertebrate for it's offspring. In the pic below one of the parent birds has just quickly transferred some tasty morsel of food to the nestlings and is ready to fly back off to find more. SeEtta

I found the American Dipper nest at Texas Creek, Colorado where I have followed nesting dippers for some years. This was an unusual nest as most along the Arkansas River west of Canon City are built on ledges of bridges. This nest is tucked into a crevice in the cement wall of the bridge and smaller than those I usually see.  SeEtta

Much to my surprise as I walked across a bridge over the Arkansas River at Texas Creek, CO yesterday this young Common Raven flew onto a fence about 15 feet in front of me. I had earlier heard some muffled calls that sounded sort of like a Common Raven and they must have come from this bird. This Common Raven is quite young, possibly even a fledgling or not long since it was. It has a very pink mouth lining with a still some pink on base of bill. Eyes are grayish though somewhat difficult to see in these pics. Plumage brownish-black with wing and tail feathers glossy (supposed to be green or purple gloss but it looks like a blue gloss to me). I had my smaller dog with me and he was startled and unsure of this bird that, though it weighs a lot less, is actually larger than him. I held him at my side by his leash but when the raven started to call it scared by dog who barked at it causing it to fly away before I could study it better. SeEtta