A Favorite - on Display in Clear Creek

There were more than just Rusty Blackbirds along Clear Creek. Walking along, I spotted one of my favorite birds to watch in action. The American Dipper, or as it was formerly known, Water Ouzel, is the rock star of fast moving water. On a cloudy day the Dipper looks like a gray spot on otherwise gray water. For that reason I usually find them as they call, or as an unconfirmed dark movement along a creek bed. This leads to far too many frustrating encounters, but then I see one like this, that was just hanging out in the middle of the stream. It gave me a great opportunity to get a closer look at this cool bird, without it constantly diving underwater.

Check out these heavy duty white eyelids! They are so unexpected when they appear 'in a blink' on this otherwise drab bird. Perhaps this is a bit of camoflauge specific to its habitat. I guess that the blinking appearance of white may help to mimic the changing nature of white water and keep the bird from appearing to static to potential predators. I couldn't find anything online to support that idea, but I didn't find any other explanation either.

Static, is not a word I would use to describe this bobbing and bouncing bit of bird. Watching it move across it's narrow wooden bridge was great light-hearted avian entertainment. So often when observing wildlife, the most captivating moments are tied to life, death, rivalry and love - the heavy stuff of existence. With the Dipper though, most of those actions are hidden from our eyes beneath the surface of fast moving water, or hidden away behind brush or falling water. So with this species, at least as I have observed it, life is limited to moving from place to place, and not in a direct point to point method either. It dips and bounces and it moves, reminding us that the journey can be the destination, and that at least in appearance getting there is just one big happy dance.

Unusual Rust

The Denver metro area birding community has been buzzing about a pair of unusual visitors along the Clear Creek drainage in Jefferson County. With a few free hours this afternoon I had to make a stop to see if I could find them as well. The Rusty Blackbirds didn't disappoint, and the multiple birders in the area made the pair easy to find. Not that these two needed much assistance. They were content to move from tree to tree along the heavily traveled trail, only moving short distances when a biker or dog walker would pass.

The female of the pair was the model of the two, and she posed for a few passable shots. Check out her light colored eyes. The male Rusty Blackbird is all black, but has the same light colored eyes. She really shows off the rusty color that gives this species their name. Sometimes though, an itch just needs to be scratched, even if a group of humans are constantly taking pictures.


2010 Count: 79
Lifetime: 208

Up - Where the Air is Clear

Usually getting a view like this requires a wake-up sometime around 4, and hours of hiking to get to a place where you are at eye level with 13,000 ft. Fortunately for those of us in Colorado, and with good snow tires, Loveland Pass and Arapahoe Basin ski area offer glimpses to drivers, skiers and riders alike for nothing more than a car or chair ride.

These shots were taken from the top of the Lenawee Chair at Arapahoe Basin, looking back along the continental divide towards Loveland Pass. From the shots it is apparent that it was a clear day, but what is not apparent is just how nice it was 7000+ feet up from home. There was virtually no breeze, and the sun made it mild, even for June at that elevation. I have stood on that ridge hundreds of times over the past ten years or so, but I would be hard pressed to remember a nicer day up top.

Soft, (but not slushy snow), and sunshine aside - "The Legend" did not offer legendary birding. I heard plenty of Chickadees, (Mountain variety), and glimpsed a few darting between cars in the parking lot, but had nothing other than those, some Ravens, and a probable Gray Jay while on the mountain.

As that was the case it was good that I started my day just before sunrise and got a couple of species near the condo where I stayed. My first bird of the day was a Steller's Jay.

They are gorgeous, and for photography's sake are much more closely seen around picnic areas.

While on my early morning walk I also added Juncos, Chickadees (both types), and both Crows and Ravens. Finally on my way back to hit the slopes I saw this Downy Woodpecker. She had me checking closely with her plain black back. Yet another variation in those diverse Downys.

Staring Down the Day

Yesterday I tried and failed to relocate the Peregrine Falcon I saw on Wednesday. I did share the sighting, and another birder was able to find it, or another in the same area later that day. The best part of the sighting was that one of the area birders, Christian Nunes, shared some additional information about Boulder County's Peregrine population with me. I had been aware that Peregrines have nested in the Flatiron area since well before I arrived in Boulder in 1994. What I did not know was that there are so many active nesting sites. I also learned something about their range. I had guessed that the Peregrine that I saw was a good ways east in its range, and would hunt between there and its nest a couple of miles west from the spot. Actually it seems that because of their nesting density that they may range up to 20 miles east from that spot, which could take them well beyond and in a direct line over my home! Hopefully before long I will have pictures of this great species.


Instead of Peregrine, I found Spotted Towhee in the morning light, and that's not half bad either.
I am off for some skiing this weekend, so perhaps some high country species will show up in this space soon.

Downy Woodpecker Diversity

Yesterday at lunch I stopped by for a quick visit along the creek that runs adjacent to the Coal Creek Golf Course. With weather as mild as we have had the past few days visits there will soon be limited to those that I pay, and carry a bag of clubs along for. But yesterday for a few minutes I enjoyed the mild weather and the common birds of the area. As I watched my attention was drawn to first one, and then another female Downy Woodpecker as they worked through the same cottonwood tree. The one above shows what I see as the typical female Downy pattern. But this one stood out as being much lighter than normal.

As much as they would cooperate I tried to get comparison shots of the two. The lighter one shows an uppercase "T" pattern on the back of her head.

While the one with the more traditional pattern shows the full cross or lowercase "t".

Looking at the two birds on the monitor I was impressed by how a relatively small area of color difference gave the two birds dramatically different 'feel' when watching them in the trees. The lighter of the two gave off a much whiter impression than I would have expected for just having a more narrow and shorter crown stripe. Much like the M. C. Escher works and the and some of the optical illusion artwork out there show - I guess our perceptions are really conditioned to triggers.

Having established what the difference was I did a bit of digging to see if this was common or an indicator of age, etc. I found this site: Variation in the head patterns of Downy (Picoides pubescens) and Hairy (P. villosus) woodpeckers. As far as I can gather the article was written by Kevin McGowan, and photography was credited to Kevin and Jay McGowan. It seems to indicate that the variations are normal, and a good means of identifying individuals. All I could get out of The Birds of North America Online, was:

"Female. Same as male except nape entirely black or black with white streaking or white nuchal-patch continuous with supercilium."

So I am left to wonder how often these lighter naped females occur, or if it is something that can be noticed more readily after one knows to look for it. I do know that I will be keeping a closer eye out for those Downys, and the next time I am back near Coal Creek I will be looking for the White-naped Lady.
Finally a House Finch for a bit of color. He and a group of his friends and rivals were all in a clump of bushes a bit further up stream. It is a favorite spot for them, I had a very similar shot last year. The location works as well, as there is good light coming from behind, and of course the red in the branches really seems to help blend with the red in their faces.

On a fun side note I had a Peregrine Falcon sighting on my way into work this morning. I had an errand before work and was approaching from a different direction. Still no postable pictures, but I will be back for hopefully more looks in the days to come.

Nope, No Feathers

My Monday afternoon hike was the least bird filled I have had in a while. I headed to Marshall Mesa, but as I was on my was I saw something across a field in the area. I pulled into a side road and watched for a while as this Coyote went about its business. Initially some Canada Geese in the area attracted attention, but eventually a small ridge was the focus of attention and led to some rooting and light digging. I really enjoy getting to observe Coyotes in their environment, they are so close to familiar domestic dogs - but their actions which mimic many of the play actions of our domestic pets are vital to their survival.

After my quick stop for the Coyote I headed on to the mesa, and began my walk. After seeing Ravens, Robins and a lone Starling from the parking area I was completely skunked until my return as the sun had faded. The fact that the walk was undertaken along trails that were half mud and half slushy snow, with a good number of hidden melt-streams running under snowy patches, kept my eyes glued to the ground rather than watching the skies and trees. It figured that yesterday was the first day in a while that I chose to wear cotton socks rather than wool. Oops.

Despite the lack of birds, it was a great afternoon to be out.

Morgan County Day Trip

On Saturday I decided to undertake a self-guided birding excursion. It was to be the better of the two weekend days, and I wanted a chance to really get out and enjoy the high plains environment, beyond the urban sprawl of the Front Range corridor. Flipping blindly through my Colorado atlas, and doing a bit of reading on the Colorado Field Ornithologists' birding website, I decided to head out to Morgan County for the day.
Morgan County is a 'smallish', rectangular county in Northeastern Colorado. It is the next step east from my large, neighboring counties of Weld and Adams. The county features a state park on a good sized reservoir, a well developed agricultural and commerce corridor bordering the South Platte River, and it is handily located along interstate I-76 - making getting there a snap.


My first stop, and main birding area, was Jackson Reservoir State Park. Having left my home at just after 7:00, I was pulled in and counting birds before 9:00. My first sighting in the park itself was a male Ring-necked Pheasant. A good sign of things to come, but on this outing the photography was taking a back seat. I was trying to lean a bit more on my ears and bins first, and get shots as an afterthought. It was a good decision, when I got back that evening I found that my sensor had somehow picked up a collection of dust to rival the area beneath my bed - yuck. Despite that there were a few pictures worth sharing, and species that didn't make the cut.
Above were a group of gulls taken from the pier on the west side of the lake. It was near an area of open water that had some great birds hanging out. Before getting to the gulls in the picture believe me when I say that my report of 48 Bald Eagles was conservative. I had to stop looking for species after I had arrived and just do a sweep of the area to count individuals before they moved around too much. Adding to the impression of the sight was the fact that only 10-15% of the lake was open, so the birds were gathered in a small area of the rather large lake.

Back to the picture above though. I caught the two gulls contesting a catch which was fun, but check out the darker guy on the right - a California Gull. I tallied the California, a good number of Herrings, and of course Ring-billeds at the park. Three gull species, not bad, I guess my gull watches are having some effect.

Gulls are still frustrating though, so lets pause to admire a posed Dark-eyed Junco. "Ah, that's better." The Juncos were part of a loose mixture in the trees as I cam back from the pier. I had American Robins, Mountain and Eastern Bluebirds all interacting with them. The Eastern Bluebirds were the first that I had seen in Colorado.

After checking some of the Russian-Olive groves in that area I met another birding couple who mentioned having had a group of 7 Long-eared owls fly into the trees near them back near the visitor center. I stopped by on my way out of the park. I never saw the owls, but enjoyed this odd moment of nature from the parking lot. Two tom Wild Turkeys were displaying and competing with one another, but were separated by a chain link fence. I have no idea how long the dominance display lasted, or if in a Turkey's mind such a thing can be decided when there is an incomprehensible barrier dividing rivals. It was good for a watch though, and more comical as there was a large opening in the fence just to the left, but these two were so hung up with one another that they may still be there now.

After a very enjoyable time at the park I headed off for my next target - a pair of adjacent parks in Fort Morgan along the South Platte, one of which was appropriately named Riverside Park. A pond there had the full compliment of exotic waterfowl, along with high numbers of both Canada and Cackling Geese. Riverside Park was a bit overdeveloped and crowded on a mild Saturday afternoon, so I headed for the more natural Canfield Park. I had to work for birds, as my walk out was pretty quiet, but eventually birds started appearing. The river itself was strangely dull. I saw 6 Mallards and 11 Killdeer on the banks or in the water, and that was about it. On my return trip I stayed more inland, and was rewarded with more cooperative subjects, like this American Goldfinch.

As I turned from the Goldfinch a Wilson's Snipe exploded from the bank of a fishing pond behind me. A few minutes later a fisherman on the far side flushed it again, and it landed briefly in the open to allow a single shot in the light.

As I walked along I added a pair of Downies and dozens more Red-winged Blackbirds, and got this shot of an Eastern Bluebird posing with the sun at its back.

It was now mid-afternoon, and I had one more area I just had to check out. One of the locations the CFO site listed was a winding county road that cut through the dunes in the southern portion of the county. I wanted this route as it was reported as a great site for raptors, and who doesn't like winding country roads through dunes?

On my way south I picked a road at random from my atlas, county road "Q", and drove east. It was while I was on this road, trying to reach my target while swinging past a SWA, that I witnessed a site that many are inspired by, hundreds of miles away at Bosque del Apache. That site was the rising of thousands of white geese from a reservoir that was dammed immediately to my right. Because the light was fading my pictures were a sad display, but I will be back in the area again to try to do justice to what I was able to witness. Just incredible!

To that end, if any reader happens to know the area, please feel free to reply to let me know if the large processing plant on the south side of that reservoir has any public access to the lake? It is just south of County Rd Q, and west of the Brush Prairie Ponds SWA.

In the fading light I did head on, and reached my target road. I saw no one for ten miles, just two dogs that chased me for a mile or so, and one Red-tail Hawk. I wouldn't have traded the experience though. At one point I stopped to pull a jacket from the back seat, and got out just to listen to the silence. I wasn't rewarded with any sightings, but that didn't matter right then. Finally as I was returning to a paved State Highway and turning back to the interstate in the cloud induced early dusk I had a pair of Harlan's Hawks, one flying and one perched, in my area. A good sighting to wrap up my first of many visits to Morgan County. The hundred Ross's Geese I saw added one life bird to my list in force. I had hoped for photos, but there should be more opportunities as migration approaches.

2010 Count: 70

Lifetime: 207