Birds and Nature

Both a male and female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, first of the year birds, flew between my yard and my next door neighbor's yard. Here is the male eating at one of my neighbor's feeders. I didn't photos of them but my neighbor and I both had Black-headed and Evening Grosbeaks in our trees also--three grosbeak species not just in one day but all three were present between 6 and 7:30 pm when a rush of birds came through. Last year we had a pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeak that spent the summer so I am hoping this pair chooses to stay with us this year too. These Rose-breasted Grosbeaks really like chokecherry trees, a wonderful native species, in my neighbors' yards and that is what it is perched in. A number of warbler species worked their way through my trees including several Yellow as well about 30 Yellow-rumped, and 3 Orange-crowned Warblers. And all of these warblers came through my yard and my neighbor's yard between 6 and 7:30 pm yesterday. I really...

I found this pretty adult male Yellow Warbler in Florence River Park where it was singing it's little heart out. This one has quite well defined chestnut streaks. SeEtta

I found this male Yellow Warbler on Saturday on the Canon City, CO Riverwalk as it got a few songs out in between mouthfuls of food. It was a very busy day on the Riverwalk so this warbler may have just arrived. Evening Grosbeak can be heard calling, loudly, in the background SeEtta Sorry that the pictures jiggles a little but if you have ever followed a warbler with binoculars you know it is a challenge to keep up with their almost constant movement and I am hand-holding the camcorder (I can't imagine how one could put the camcorder on a tripod because of the difficulty tracking them). If the picture is black, just click on the start button on the bottom right of the screen.

The "sweet-sweet" songs of Yellow Warblers have filled the air in the Canon City, CO for the past several days. Though many of these warblers are likely just stopping over to refuel during the migration elsewhere, some appear to be setting up territories as the males are displaying and chasing. This pic is of one male that was busy foraging along the Canon City Riverwalk over the week-end. Though my 400 mm Canon lens is very sharp, it does not have image stabilization so these hand-held shots challenge me to hold still (and since my 1.4 extender is a Kenko not Canon, I lose the autofocus feature on the lens). Do double-click on this pic for super close-up view. SeEtta