After weeks of subfreezing weather, Saturday morning dawned with a promise of warm sunshine and blue skies. As the sun rose, we were already on our way, heading out onto the short-grass prairies. Pikes Peak receded into the rear view mirror. Our focus was on the trees and telephone poles along the road. Seven of us had piled into two cars, bristling with binos and telephoto lenses. It was time to photograph raptors!
Category: Birds
January Quiz: Answer
To refresh your memory, here are the photos from January’s Bird Quiz. The bird was seen in Colorado during the month of December. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify this bird.
January Bird Quiz
Can you identify this bird? The photos were taken in Colorado during the month of December. The answer will appear next week.
Parting Shots
Once again, it seems appropriate to post a few “parting shots” as we leave 2015. Hope you had a great year, and wishing you the best for 2016!
Swirling Shovelers
Last month, I explained how to ID a Northern Shoveler. This time, I thought I would write more about their ducky lifestyles.
Birding the City
“Two juncos.”
“OK, what kind?”
“One Grey-backed, one Pink-sided—oops, there go half a dozen more! Were they Slate-sided?”
“Oh, I can’t tell! Just write down eight Juncos!”
“Over there—that looks like a Bushtit. And another, and… there must be 50 of them in that bush!”
Counting birds isn’t always easy, but that what I did Saturday. I was participating in Audubon’s 114th Christmas Bird Count, something I’ve done off and on for the past ten years, ever since I discovered the joys of birding.
December Quiz: Answer
To refresh your memory, here is the photo from December’s Bird Quiz. The bird was seen in Texas during the month of December. Don’t read any further if you want one last chance to identify this bird.
December’s Bird Quiz
Can you identify this bird? The photo was taken in Texas during the month of December. The answer will appear next week.
Gifts for Bird Lovers
Thanksgiving is past and we’re fully into the frenetic holiday shopping season. Birding websites and magazines will be running lists of gift ideas for birders—new binoculars, field guides and apps, birding accessories, etc. As a birder myself, I would certainly love to receive one of these items, but most of them are pretty expensive.
I’ve created a (very short) list of bird-related gifts which won’t break your wallet (they’re all under $25), ranging from silly stocking stuffers to practical clothing. These are just the beginning, a source of inspiration, as there are hundreds of bird-related gifts just waiting to be discovered.
Welcoming Juncos
I just added bird #19 to my yard list. That may not sound like very many, but we only moved into our new house in May, and we had no landscaping until August. Birds are rarely attracted to bare dirt!
Not surprisingly, #19 was a Dark-eyed Junco. Vertical migrants, Juncos spend the summer up in the mountains, nesting in the conifers, and descend to lower elevations for the winter. At 7,100 feet , our house barely qualifies as a lower elevation; the park up the road, a mere 200 feet higher, hosts juncos all year.
Mountain Plover 