Birds and Nature

Landbird migration has been pretty good this past week. Birds like the Blue Grosbeak above and the House Wren(s) I saw today were few but I have seen well over a hundred Wilson's Warblers with the largest number just over a week ago. Surprised I am still seeing Western Tanagers as so many had moved through during the first half of the month-but I saw about 10 tonight in just two trees (that were above a lot of wild grapes) by the Arkansas River. SeEtta

I spotted this male Wilson's Warbler in Florence River Park yesterday. About a week ago I saw a very shy Western Tanager in that park, another on the Canon City Riverwalk and earlier this week I saw one in Red Canyon Park. Landbird migration is on. SeEtta

A new arrival this week has been Wilson's Warblers like this first year bird. I saw the first on May 5 and have seen one to two daily. SeEtta

Yesterday I found several Wilson's Warblers, including the one in this pic, on the Canon City Riverwalk. These bright yellow beauties migrate through the lower elevations of Colorado on their way to their high elevation breeding areas.

The past several days have been quite cool and rainy--what is most often the weather around Memorial Day. The fronts that have brought this weather also brought more waves of migrating landbirds including a number of warblers like the two in these pics that I photographed yesterday. Though not common during spring migration (they are very common here during fall migration), Wilson's Warblers breed in the more mountainous areas of Colorado. I caught the male Wilson's in the top two pics as he flew between branches while engaged in very active foraging. The bottom warbler is a male Common Yellowthroat that was foraging in some deciduous trees near the Arkansas River along the Canon City Riverwalk. SeEtta