Birds and Nature

While the Rufous-crowned Sparrow above looks disheveled it is only because it had just been bathing in some melted snow water and drying off in the sun (on a cool, upper 30's, but sunny day). The Rufous-crowned Sparrows that are resident in the Tunnel Drive area of Canon City associate with Canyon Towhees and the towhee below had just bathed also. SeEtta

I first spotted this black hawk over the week-end and from it's behavior and looks without binoculars thought it was a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk. I has been very distant from the road when it perches so strained my long zoom and then cropping to get these pics. From it's whitish tail this is not one that I have seen here in recent weeks. It shows the black, rather than brown plumage found on Western Red-tails, a little white on it's face and most prominent is the whitish tail with dark tip. Interestingly there is a second Harlan's here that was perched several hundred yards from this one over fields. SeEtta

I found this Wilson's Snipe working in a drainage ditch (actually what is called 'return flow' ditch for return of excess irrigation water) on private property in the Canon City area. This was before our recent cold spell that froze much of the water in this ditch. SeEtta

Yesterday I found an unusually large flock of at least 20 but more likely 30 or more Eastern Bluebirds just east of Canon City. As we are right up next to the mountains where they are not found they are fairly uncommon in this area. However while we do usually get some of these in the winter it is generally 5-10. I found and photographed these on private property where they were coming down to drink from a canal that was mostly iced over. I followed the flock as it flew over to the Pathfinder Park where they appeared to be foraging in some Russian Olive trees that had good numbers of olive fruit on them and they were fairly small in size. SeEtta

I found this Merlin last week but had computer problems so could not upload the photos. As Merlins are uncommon winter visitors in Canon City I believe it is the same Merlin as was seen by my friend Cathy near the Abbey the week before and likely the same as was seen by friend Linda on the Riverwalk before that. I first spotted it perched in large tree on the other side of the Arkansas River from the Canon City Riverwalk where I was walking--see bottom pic for that view. After watching it stretch and look around a lot for about 5 minutes it flew over to the river and harassed a pair of Mallard Ducks, in fact flushed them though it is way too small to be a real threat to them. This is a Taiga subspecies of Merlin. Per Birds of North Americ a online, "...breeds from Newfoundland to w. Alaska south into the n. US (Maine and n. Vermont, New Hampshire, and NY; n. Great Lakes states, and w. mountain states)." . SeEtta

After this feisty Merlin buzzed the Mallards and chased off a couple of Eurasian-collared Doves in trees across the river, it did a neat acrobatic flight show along the Arkansas River where I caught the above shot. I took these pics almost 2 weeks ago (and had computer stop working so just got it back up and running) and haven't seen this beauty since then. SeEtta

I participated in the Pueblo Reservoir Christmas Bird Count for a half day yesterday. This is one of the nice raptors I found in the Pueblo West section of the count. Strangely it flushed when I drove within 100 feet of it and it didn't flush until I was further away walking back. As it landed on a utility pole down a trail I walked down and it let me get close to the pole on foot which I would have thought would be more invasive than in a car. Anyway I got some nice pics. SeEtta