Cooperation

I had a fun opportunity to join several other birders on a morning walk at a few locations in the area of the Denver Botanical Gardens Arboretum near Chatfield Reservoir. More on the birding in a future post.


One of the memorable experiences from this trip was seeing this pair from the vehicles as we traveled between two sites. Both species were content to remain as we observed the symbiotic behavior, despite a vehicle first backing up to get the above shot, and then pulling around the corner to watch them head on.

In the above shot, the Black-billed Magpie is seen working through the Mule Deer's coat. It is clearly enjoying a protein rich meal of mites or ticks. The deer gets a nice clean coat out of the deal, and seemed to be showing about as much "bliss" as any deer could. Deer don't seem to wag tails, or get a foot twitch going when a bird is working on just the right spot, but the look on his face at times was very similar to a certain Golden Retriever I know.

I am sure that this type of behavior isn't at all uncommon, but it was the first time I had a chance to observe it up close. Seeing it for a first time was a really fun experience. Oddest in my mind are how unsuited these two species seem for such behavior. Magpies, typically calling loudly, seem just too confrontational - and Mule Deer, while less jumpy than White-tails in my observations, still don't seem the type to just abide a good sized bird landing on their backs, no matter how itchy. Nonetheless, these two were very "chill". We observed them for long minutes, while neither seemed in any rush to break the partnership. After enjoying the view we pulled away, leaving this odd couple to help one another cope with the winter chill that has descended.

Afternoon Delight

Or the next best thing. A beautiful afternoon overlooking Boulder.




This female Common Merganser was swimming with two males.

This Black-billed Magpie had the best view in town sitting right on the mesa's rim.

The typical sight of a Red-tailed Hawk soaring. Well off in the distance, but when they catch the sun those red tail feathers are impressive.

Finally this Yucca looked so cool growing up above the surface. Not sure if that is from recent wind erosion, or if it just had to stretch to beat out some other plant that has since gone.

Have a great weekend all! I am hoping to join a DFO field trip and or do some skiing.

Harper Lake Late Lunch

Poor Geese, they are out there for us day in and day out. I leave a trip to a lake thinking I saw nothing, and on any given day there are at least 20 of these dudes, (or dudettes), out there keeping it real for us. This guy or gal was content to sit trailside as I walked past, didn't even bother to honk or hiss, just chilin'. It deserved a picture on the blog, since the last Canada Goose I pictured was having a bit of trouble on the ice.

Chilly it was. The forecast says that there may be snow, but it should stay south and that we may see a dusting - usually the sure sign that we are going to get dumped on. I meanwhile am paying for my previous post about practicing photography on Gulls. Now more than ever the Ring-billeds seem to feel a need to make approaching passes at me. Not the slow hunting passes that are reliable either. These are the ones that come at you so fast that the auto-focus only sees sky as they come past at 15 feet. Oh, well. They are entertaining, and getting outside for an hour sure is nice.

The gull lifting away here had just pulled a great bit of larceny on the gull in the water, at first I thought I had a bit of inter-species rivalry going, but as usual it was just two Ring-billeds doing what they do best.

I saw some better behavior action when two Crows and a Ring-billed all joined forces to drive a Red-tail that had flown into the area across the lake. They made it very clear that the Red-tail was unwelcome.

This next gull wasn't doing much of anything, but the water he was sitting in picked up a great shade of blue from the partly cloud skies.

Finally, I found a more cooperative Black-billed Magpie than the well lit ones from Tuesday evening. Unfortunately his blue is not popping out like that evening, but he was willing to hang out at the ground feeder near someone's fence. Not sure what he was feeding on, but it must have been good.

Bird it Good!