American Dipper feeding on shore

On Saturday I located a total of 4 American Dippers at three locations along the Arkansas River in the Bighorn Sheep Canyon west of Canon City plus two nests at two locations.

The photo just below shows one of the dipper nests.

I videoed this American Dipper as it fed on the multiple insects on the shore. While this species is best known for feeding in and under rapidly moving water there had been a good caddis hatch so seems likely this bird as well as it's mate, that I also watched feeding on the shore, were enjoying the caddis flies. SeEtta

Pinyon Jays with one collecting nesting material

After birding with some friends today I went on to do some birding in the Bighorn Sheep Canyon west of Canon City. I spotted 2 Pinyon Jays that I followed by car for a ways then unable to drive where they flew I went on to check on American Dippers. When I drove back that way I refound the jays in some pinyon juniper.

I watched from my car as some unknown number of Pinyon Jays flew about and called. I wondered if this could be a nesting area. Though I have found Pinyon Jay creches before I have never found a nesting area. I walked in and found this bird perched rather quietly. It allowed me to approach on foot most unusually close, only about 40 feet away when it moved further inside the tree.

Then I spotted the bird in the photo below walking further away, maybe a 100 feet. As I watched it pulled grasses with it's bill, apparently gathering nesting material. Sorry the photo isn't sharper but it was pretty distant for this handheld photo, but you can see the grasses in it's bill.

I had to include the very bottom photo of one of the Pinyon Jays as the backdrop for the jays was very scenic-the Sangre de Christo Mountains. I also wanted to add that the flock took off and numbered about 60-70 birds which surprised me. SeEtta

Black Phoebe casting a pellet

I found this Black Phoebe last week on the property of the Fremont County Sewer District near their sewer plant where I have seen Black Phoebes for several years. As I watched the bird tossed it's head downward and I caught it in the act of casting a pellet, something more often associated with owls. However Black Phoebes and other birds that eat insects or other live prey whole do this to get rid of the digestible parts. Though a real sharp photo below, it does show the pellet and it's size relative to the bird.

Casting of pellets by Black Phoebes is noted in Birds of North America (p. 6). I have only seen a Black Phoebe cast a pellet on one previous occasion. I have previously blogged a sequence of photos of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (and sharper than this one) as it cast a pellet. SeEtta

Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk riding same thermal as the Sandhill Crane family

Interestingly the Harlan's Hawk I posted about just below apparently jumped on the same thermal as the Sandhill Crane family as I watched them all rising higher and higher sometimes in the same view as in this photos. SeEtta

Another Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk

This is a late post as I actually spotted this Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk when I was watching the Sandhill Crane family in Canon City right before they took off to continue their migration

This hawk was perched quite a distance away, about 400 feet away, so the perched photos have been severely cropped to see the field marks--black with a little white on breast and around forehead plus undertail.

This hawk took off and apparently got on a thermal to rise high in the sky showing off a classic Harlan's underside pattern. SeEtta

Sandhill Cranes take off to continue migration

I first found these cranes on March 10 (first day birding for several days as I had been out of town) and I watched them take off yesterday and gaining a lot of altitude to apparently provide the winds at higher altitude to continue their migration.

As the cranes flew in circles, they beat their wings often then started to glide as they got higher. SeEtta

Family of Sandhill Cranes--video of them feeding

These short video clips show the family of 4 Sandhill Cranes in the Canon City, CO area that made a stop-over from their migration north to feed. They would come into this fallow agricultural field where manure had been spread the week before. In the video clip the cranes can be seen turning the large pieces of manure and tossing clumps aside to get at insects and/or grain. Clearly shown is one of the cranes keeping a watch while the others eat. (note-the sound sucks because I am parked on the side of a busy road with a lot of traffic plus big wind gusts blowing a metal sign but I did turn the sound lower).  SeEtta

Male Eastern Bluebirds Competing for the attention of a lady bluebird

)
 I heard these male bluebirds singing yesterday and was privileged to watch their competition for a female Eastern Bluebird. This species is very uncommon in my south central Colorado location but I did document a nesting by Eastern Bluebirds in my area a few years ago. These male bluebirds chased each other and had a song competition that enjoyable to hear (and I suppose the female bluebird thought so also). This series of short video clips start with the boys singing then the chase begins. )
    The males just sing from nearby perches in the second video clip. Sorry about the noise-though not that close to a highway the sound really carried when loud vehicles drove by. )
   Towards the end of the last video clip there are sounds of people approaching then a chickadee 'audio-bombs' (tried to find this term but didn't locate it as a term so you may have heard it hear first-just the same as photo bomb but for sound) the video with it's song. SeEtta

Surprise very early butterfly

I found this brushfoot butterfly yesterday on a dirt road next to some riparian forest in Canon City,CO.

So far two knowledgeable Colorado butterflyers have differing identifications of either a Satyr or a Hoary Comma butterfly.

A few Sandhill Cranes stop-over to feed

I spotted 4 Sandhill Cranes foraging in an agricultural field on the east side of Canon City today. Migrating Sandhill Cranes fly over this area and can be heard during both spring and fall migrations with their distinctive calls. Small family groups usually stop-over to feed though generally I have only seen them in less public (and thus less disturbed by people) fields in the area. These were feeding alongside a number of Canada Geese and 2 Snow Geese (that are vagrant to this area) in a field where manure was spread last week likely providing lots of insects plus some grain for a good crane feed.

Here is a very brief video clip of one of the cranes feeding. SeEtta

Funny looking in their breeding plumage-Double-crested Cormorants

Now that breeding season is upon us I think that Double-crested Cormorants are such funny looking birds with their feathers sticking out both sides of their heads reminds me of the member of the 3 Stooges called Larry.

Light Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk in Canon City

I spotted this Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk today on the east side of Canon City. It was very shy flushed when it saw me photographing it from more than 250 feet away so photos are not the best--and it was 5:30 pm so light was low.

With it's mostly white face, dark crown, brownish-black body, streaked white breast, blackish belly I believe this is a Light morph (or using Wheeler's scheme, a light intermediate morph) Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk.

The tail is whitish above on the basal half with rufous on the outer half. The underside of tail looks like marble with rufous. SeEtta