Tag: bird

Posted on in Birding Tips, Birds, Humor

New Birds: A Proposal

Last August I posted my suggestion that we add inanimate objects to our life lists. For some reason, my idea didn’t meet with the enthusiasm I had hoped for. Still, I think it has merit. Birders love to catalog things, and think of all the different kinds of beer cans, water bottles, plastic bags, and similar items we can enjoy identifying and collecting.

In any case, I’m not giving up. Perhaps we balk at trash and rocks, but how about other living objects we might mistakenly perceive as birds? Surely we can consider such additions as…

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Posted on in Birds

The 2013 Aiken Calendars Are Coming!

cover-with-text-western-tanager-small

Are you a Colorado birder? Do you know a Colorado birder? Do you just like birds? The Aiken Audubon Society of the Colorado Springs area has created a gorgeous 12-month 2013 calendar to raise funds for education, field trips, and conservation. Printed in full-color, the photographs are of birds found in state, and I’m pretty pleased to say that more than half the shots are mine!

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Posted on in Birding Tips

Believe Your Eyes

nyctanassa_violacea_-ciego_de_avila_province_cuba_-juvenile-8_Some years ago, my friend and I were out birding here in Colorado. It was a month or so after Hurricane Katrina had inundated the Gulf Coast, but that fact was far from our minds on that early morning in August. We had stopped at a little pond alongside the road to check out the ducks and waders, when we spotted a large brown-striped bird standing at the edge of the water. It looked a lot like the bird in this photo (which is courtesy of Laura Gooch via WikiCommons—thank you).

At the time, we were both fairly new birders. We didn’t own one scope between us. As the bird was on the far shore, we took turns squinting through our binos and consulting our field guide. Our view wasn’t nearly as good as the photo here.

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Posted on in Bird Profiles, Birding Tips, Gardening, Landscaping, Plant Profiles

Annual Sunflowers

helianthus-annuus-sunflower-csu-23jul04-lah-029Sunflowers may resemble a huge yellow sun towering overhead, but their name comes from their ability to keep their “face” turned toward the sun. Everyone recognizes a conventional sunflower with its huge dark disk surrounded by yellow petals, set atop a sturdy stalk that may reach over eight feet in height. A quick tour of a seed catalog shows that this is just the beginning. Breeders have developed shorter plants (as low as two feet) and an expanded palette of hues ranging from mahogany through orange to lemon yellow, white, and even soft rose to wine-red. Many types sport more than one color.

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Posted on in Bird Profiles, Birds, Humor

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Beer Bottle?

traffic-camera_colospgs-co_lah_2516-1“Look! A Prairie Falcon!”

Eva was jumping up and down, pointing at a medium-sized light blob on a near-by lightpost.

“Wow, what a great bird to start our day!” she enthused. We had just met up to go birding, and hadn’t even left the parking lot yet. I grabbed my binos and squinted harder at the blob.

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Posted on in Birding Trips

Cool Birds

lah_6691Here in Colorado, it’s the hottest summer in anyone’s memory. I’ve had a major case of birding ennui, canceling trip after trip when the mercury topped 100⁰F. The birds are smart enough to nap during the heat of the day, and I’m learning from their example.

However, when our Audubon chapter scheduled a trip up 14,265 Mt. Evans, I jumped at the chance. It’s not every day you can beat the heat and have a chance at a lifer, all on the same trip.

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