Recent Arrivals

This morning I awoke to the sound of my alarm, as opposed to the sound of the howling wind and my neighbor's noisy new wind chime. I got away a bit early and was rewarded with a bright beautiful morning with just a touch of cool breeze. I made a short stop at Stearn's Lake, and while walking was able to spot two species that are recently arrived from the south.

The Common Yellowthroat is a bird that I was fortunate to see and photograph early. It is usually found deep in reed beds or cattails. Later in the season looks will be limited to catching this bird as it emerges briefly from its activity deep in the vegetation. This morning, though, I got a few good looks as it alternated between deep under a willowy clump and some dead grass perches out in the open.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find a couple of Lark Sparrows along the path. I like the Lark Sparrow because it's facial pattern is so distinctive. Last year I didn't find them until later in the summer, so it was a nice bonus to get to watch them at the early end of their tenure in this range.

Afternoon at the Arsenal

In addition to wondering about the possibilities and prevalence of leucism I saw a good variety of full color birds at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday.


The Common Yellowthroat popped into the top of a willow thicket as I walked by and posed while singing for me to take a few shots.

A young Red-tailed Hawk flew along the edge of a wood, and paused for a moment to check me out from the perch it had found. It then called once, took off towards and then over me, before flying on to a more distant grove of trees. I guess it wanted a closer look.

Another young bird, this one a juvenile Snowy Egret, moved from perch to perch as I returned along the lake shore. I used my photo processing software to take a bit of the edge off the mid-day sun. In its altered the photograph shows the key indicator for the age of the Snowy, its bi-colored legs. Eventually the legs will darken, leaving the yellow feet at the end of long black legs. The trademark of an adult Snowy Egret.

As I was leapfrogging the Snowy's perches I was accompanied by a pair of Belted Kingfishers. They were more secretive, preferring to remain on the far side of leafy trees, but their calls give them away. At one point the foliage broke, giving me this view.

Just as I reached the dam road I spotted this flight of Double-Crested Cormorants using some concrete as a communal perch. The two in the back were playing king of the hill with the lone remaining perch, very entertaining.

While scanning the lines I did pick up Bank Swallows as well, which was a new species for me. The back of one is visible in the picture at the top of the previous post.

2009 Count: 168

Lifetime: 178

Another great morning at Plaster Reservoir

As seems to be the case, once a new bird becomes identifiable they turn up all over the place. I guess that is fitting for a "Common" Yellowthroat. The one I saw this morning was much more visible perched up in a Russian Olive grove.


On the topic of first sightings, I was somewhat surprised to see that I had not yet gotten an Eared Grebe. Well I did this morning. The salad being pulled up from the bottom seemed a bit much for breakfast, but the grebes, pelicans and cormorants were all wearing green at times.



Keeping on the Grebe trend, this Pied-Billed Grebe was out in more open water further along in my walk.

Plaster is a great spot for waterfowl. I had another add for Broomfield, the Blue-Winged Teal below was showing off his distinctive white face in the sunlight.

Nature wasn't all feather this morning though, I caught sight of this guy on the brim of my hat out of the corner of my eye. In the fly tying world it seems like an emerger for a size 10 hook, I think it looks like a flying shrimp with those tails.

Glad I got up close to early this morning, I didn't have time for another shot at Gregory Canyon and the Scarlet Tanager, but an Eared Grebe is a nice consolation.

2009 Count: 160

Lifetime: 172

"Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world..."

If Bogart were a Finch and smoked double cigarettes I am sure he would have just that expression. In addition to being distracted by the brilliant red above, on my stop at Stearn's Lake and the adjacent farm pond I was struck by just how high the water level is currently. It really isn't much of a surprise given our recent rains, but for two areas that are usually havens for shorebirds there isn't much mudflat real estate. Instead the cattails are sitting in floodplains. The Red-winged Blackbirds are loving it, but I was disappointed that no Bitterns were hanging out, or if they were I still haven't picked up the knack for spotting them. That is one species that I am looking forward to finally locating.

It wasn't all disappointment and classics last evening though. In unusually birder like fashion, (for me) I worked the picture of my lifer Common Yellowthroat above. At first I heard a new call as I was watching for swallows at the farm pond. It was coming from the willows on the bank, and to my ear sounded like a DJ triple scratching - Vee-teh..Vee-teh..Vee-teh. I had to have been looking right at it, but couldn't see anything moving in the vegetation. Finally, after about 5 minutes of the sound moving through the tree I caught sight of movement. I was just about to click a few blocked frames when a flash of yellow shot out, across the road, and into the reeds on the Boulder County side of the road. I saw where the shape had dropped out of view, so I approached and kept him singing with a few whistles/pishes of my own. After another ten or so minutes of his echoing my horrible impersonation of his song he rose up high enough for me to get a few shots through the wide leaves. Not bad when I get to bag a lifer and get to follow it between two counties.

2009 Count: 159

Lifetime: 171