Birds and Nature

At the end of March this year I spotted a Common Raven going into a crevice above a rock face of a local cliff area called Castle Rock (as part of it looks sort of like a castle). I started watching this area and observed a pair of Common Ravens spending time around this location. On March 27 I spotted one of the ravens inside the crevice which now had what looked like nesting material in it--the photograph of that is the second pic here. I continued off and on to check this apparent crevice nest. At the end of May I saw what appeared to be a nestling inside the crevice. I continued birding in the riparian forest across the Arkansas River from this cliff area. When I was about a quarter mile away I heard a lot of raven racket and walked to a spot where I could see the cliff area through my binoculars. I could see a lot of raven action with the parent birds calling loudly so I expected that the nestling may have fledged or they were trying to get it to fledge. I went back t...

I usually get Evening Grosbeaks at my feeders in the spring while many lowland areas only see them in the winter. This year was a big year for them with hundreds around Canon City and Florence including several dozen at least in my neighborhood. They were going through a lot of seed (I only feed safflower when the bears are out but they seem to love it) so I was buying it by the 25 lb bag at a feed store. Fyi, that is a Pine Siskin sharing the feeder in the top pic demonstrating how large these Evening Grosbeak are (which translates into how much they eat especially when there are 6-10 of them at your feeders at a time). The number of Evening Grosbeaks has steadily decreased in the past 10 days as birds have presumably moved into their upland coniferous habitats documented in the Colo Breeding Bird Atlas I as preferred by them in this state. For the past 3 days including this morning I have only seen 2 birds, a male and female, at my feeders. It is time for them to be in the...

I further cropped one of the photos below to super enlarge the face of this Yellow-billed Cuckoo to show it's grayish orbital ring. I haven't often either viewed a Yellow-billed Cuckoo up close or taken photos that provide the close-up views as I did with the bird I found yesterday in Van's Grove. I have seen in Sibley's and National Geographic (6th ed) that they have a yellow orbital ring and show drawings of both adult and juvenile birds with yellow orbital rings. When I cropped my photos to enlarge them it was clear that the bird I found did not have a yellow orbital ring-it was grayish. So I did some reading and now am confused. Birds of North America online states, "Orbital skin pale yellow in nestling; grayish in adult." McGill Bird Observatory (has banding photos) states, "A quick and reliable way to determine age in Yellow-billed Cuckoos is by the orbital ring, which is yellow in HY/SY birds (until late winter or spring) and grayish in o...

Though this is the second Yellow-billed Cuckoo I have found this year (actually in the past 3 days), I could only hear the other cuckoo giving it's 'coo' song but was unable to find it visually. I found this Yellow-billed Cuckoo this afternoon at Van's Grove in southeastern Colorado. SeEtta

I was too tired last night to go through the rest of my photos to see if I got the Blackburnian in the last of the sunlight. I did find these two that, while not in direct light, were still pretty bright.  SeEta

When I checked my email on my smartphone this morning I saw that a Blackburnian Warbler had been refound in Colorado Springs at the Sondermann Park there. I was on my way to that city to do some errands and shopping so I decided I would go look for it at end of the day when I finished my other tasks. I only had to drive about a mile out of my way on the drive back through Colorado Springs to get to the park. Though I wasn't sure the light would be good for viewing and photos since I didn't get there until almost 6 pm, it worked out ok and the late afternoon sunshine though it only shone on parts of the trees where the bird was foraging provided nice color when I got the bird in the light. Most of the time I watched this rare warbler it foraged in the tops of a deciduous tree but it flew to a tall pine tree where I got the top pic. While the reduction in sunlight made some shots too dark to post, more challenging was the almost constant movement and erratic movem...

I found this male American Redstart in a Colorado hotspot called Tempel Grove located just south of Negronda Reservoir and along a major irrigation canal. Unlike much of this and other irrigation canals there is a lot of vegetation, both trees and shrubs, that the Tempels had to fight the canal company to keep (irrigation companies routinely destroy vegetation along canals to reduce water loss). Melody Temple, who is now deceased, loved birds and her husband has dedicated the birding trail area along the canal that is generously open to birders in her memory. This male American Redstart in his striking breeding plumage was feeding in some of the trees just off the canal (currently empty). It has what looks like a fly in it's beak in the top pic. The only other warbler I found there was a Hooded but I only heard it sing twice and did not find it visually. SeEtta