Birds and Nature

This is some amazing research:  " Insects may not have the biggest brains in the animal world, but that doesn’t mean they don’t feel fear. In fact, in a study by Canadian biologists dragonflies were found to be so sensitive to their surroundings that the mere presence of a predator scared them to death – even when there was no chance of them being eaten. ‘What we found was unexpected - more of the dragonflies died when predators shared their habitat,’ says University of Toronto biologist Professor Locke Rowe, the study’s co-lead investigator.'" Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2054667/Insects-scared-death-mere-presence-predator.html#ixzz1d9hyKIkj

Following is a link to the calls I heard given by the Worm-eating Warbler on the Canon City Riverwalk: http://www.xeno-canto.org/sounds-Worm-eating Warbler flight call (B) This is a recording made by Paul Driver in New Jersey and interestingly it is labeled as a flight call.  I also found a similar recording on Paul Driver's 'Bird Songs and Calls' blog (scroll down page)  that represents the calls I have heard this bird make.  Mr. Driver refers to this as a 'high buzzy' call on his blog. The photo is the original I took today that I that is uncropped.   SeEtta

I met a small group of intrepid birders from northern Colorado (mostly Denver area) who came to look for this rare vagrant warbler this morning. In mid-morning the Worm-eating Warbler vocalized for a short period of time and several of us got very brief, fleeting views of it as it flew along the bottom of a thicket of limbs and vines then vanished. Two of us stayed but were birding our way down the trail at 12:30 (MST) right by where it had moved to (a good 100 feet east of where we had seen it earlier and had been watching). And what a better spot on the north side of the trail where some sunlight was filtering through so we got several very good views and I got this much better pic. Please note that since the lighting was better the only thing I did to the pic was to crop it to enlarge it and did no other editing--so what you see is what the camera saw and what I recollect seeing. And what a surprise---instead of skulking close to the ground in the shady south side of the t...

So this really is a pic of the Worm-eating Warbler though it is upside down and the view is of it's underparts. However, it is crisper than the other photo. Of note are the very 'fleshy pink' feet as Birds of North America BNA online so aptly describes them. BNA says, "Entire underparts are varying shades of cream to rich cream and buff yellow".  To me on this bird the lower belly becomes whitish and continues whitish to the vent then buffy yellow which I guess is close to BNA description.   They call the tail feathers "dark drab"  which seems a good description for this bird.   Those are the only features I can make out from this pic.  SeEtta

This morning I found this Worm-eating Warbler on the east end of the Canon City -CO Riverwalk. I first heard it giving some very raspy call notes that sounded to me like 'z,z,z'. I didn't know the call but knew this was not a bird with which I was familiar so I followed it as it flew across the trail and into a thicket at the base of a tree next to the trail. I didn't get a good view of it as it flew but noted it flew very close to the ground. There were several chickadees in the same area but once I picked this bird out from the tangle I knew it was a Worm-eating Warbler as I got good view, albeit only seconds long as it's features are distinctive. It then flew back across the trail, again very close to the ground, and I could see it's head stripes and very buffy (actually more yellowish than I remembered from the first Worm-eating Warbler I saw) coloration well. I lost it for a few minutes then refound it briefly then lost it again, then refound it aga...

This is the second part of the video of the Eagle Owl that shows it making the landing with it's claws fully extended to grasp it's food reward. At the very end it opens it's beak wide as it is about to grab it. Awesome!

This is an astonishing video in slow motion of a european owl called an EagleOwl (likely Eurasian EagleOwl, see interesting markings on wings and very wide wings) coming in to get a food reward from trainer ( it is a captive bird, see bands on legs, and object sticking out from bottom of screen that appears to be the reward). It is filmed by the man whose youtube page ( vurtrunner ) has a number of videos this special super high speed camera. The video is fascinating, watching just how the bird moves it's wings and controls it's landing. SeEtta