A few leftovers from the CFO convention trips before I begin to try to catch up this current week. It is so good to have too many birds to share!

While up in the high country meadows on our Red Feather Lakes trip, we were unsuccessful in our attempts to track down a Williamson's Sapsucker, we had a very cooperative Lincoln's Sparrow. It was perched in front of a willow thicket, and sat as an entire birding crew got long looks at it. I tried to move around it to get a bit better angle in the mid-day glare, and was somewhat successful.


The trip to Phantom Canyon was not one that was well suited to photography, but I did get a slightly closer shot of a Green-tailed Towhee to share. My previous post didn't have the same camo pattern of shadows going on, but what this one sacrifices in face detail it does regain by showing a bit more of the tail color.

Finally, there was that last life bird that I added on the impromptu stop returning from Wyoming. Just as we were reaching our turnaround point our trip leader heard a bird calling from the bushes, and I was fortunate to get this shot of a female American Redstart.

Once again I would like to express my gratitude to the CFO board for coordinating the event, the trip leaders who got us out to the primo sites, and to all my fellow birders on the trips who shared their experience and enthusiasm to make sure that everyone was getting on the good birds. I arrived as a mostly anonymous individual, and am sure that next year if I am able to attend I will be seeing more familiar faces, and generally more familiar with the whole event.

I find that in life there are certain situations that you only get to experience as 'firsts' once. This was one of those events. I know that any future bird trips or conventions I attend will be different, because I will have this one to compare them to. My slate is no longer blank, but I couldn't have picked a better event to fill it on. Watch out birding world and CFO, my bar has been set high!