Showing posts with label Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ruby-crowned Kinglet. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Foggy Morning Birds and Beasts

We know we have Armadillos because they poke their pointy noses into the ground looking for grubs, but we rarely see them. It was early on a foggy morning and I was sitting at my sewing machine when his movement caught my eye.


When I got up to investigate (and grab my camera) I also spotted our very regular visitor, Mr. Coyote, heading back home. ...until he spotted the Armadillo! The coyote stopped dead in his tracks and watched the armadillo for a long time - decided he would not be a good meal - and turned and left just as the armadillo disappeared into the woods.


Another furry visitor! Too bad the coyote didn't see him! We have very few grey squirrels at the back feeders as it is too open but this one was brave.


Out in front, I noticed a new bird for the year - a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. You can't see the ruby spot on his head, but I'm sure it's there.



Looking out back again, a Yellow-rumped Warbler had scared the squirrel away.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

More Birds! ...continued




Northern Bobwhite

Cardinal

Northern Parula

Orchard Oriole

Painted Bunting (F)

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Summer Tanager (immature male)

Summer Tanager

Western Tanager

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Birding in the Upper Huerfano River Valley
And THREE Life Birds!

Yesterday we decided to get away from the lingering smoke and ash and head south to one of our favorite places - the Huerfano River Valley. We packed a picnic lunch and met up with daughter Laura and her hubby Tim at o'dark thirty for the drive south on I-25 to Walsenburg. After an always delicious breakfast at George's, we turned west, past Gardner and the Singing River Ranch (that recently sold for 6-million dollars!) into the high elevation (above 10,000 feet) San Isabel National Forest. The road is long and bumpy - but the views are sensational. 

While Laura and Tim hiked back towards Blanca Peak and Mt. Lindsey to do some fishing and gold-panning in the Huerfano River, Bill and I took our time on the trail and looked for birds. We were not disappointed!

Wilson's Warbler (female)
We found a spot with lots of little yellow birds flying around and spent a couple of hours getting pictures and trying to identify them.

Wilson's Warbler (female)
 Our first new Life Bird was the Wilson's Warbler. It's diet is insects - and only insects.

Wilson's Warbler (male)
 The male Wilson's Warbler has a black cap on his head and at first look, we thought it was an American Goldfinch - but the goldfinch cap is over the forehead and they have black wings.

Wilson's Warbler (male)
 Beautiful little birds!

Audubon's Warbler (male)
 The Audubon's Warbler is a subspecies of the Yellow-rumped Warbler.

Audubon's Warbler (female)
Lincoln's Sparrow
The Sparrow with the Mohawk! When I was on Sanibel with my sister, Beth, there was a Lincoln's Sparrow  near the beach - but I missed it. My sister didn't and got a great picture. I was jealous. On this trip, we saw several sparrows flitting around, but it wasn't until I got home and checked my pictures that I was able to make final identification. The Lincoln's Sparrow was our third Life Bird of the day!

Dark-eyed Junco
 We saw a couple of other favorite birds - a Dark-eyed Junco, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet and a spectacular Western Tanager.

Western Tanager (male)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
 The red spot on the head of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet is hard to see and nearly impossible to photograph. Without it, the bird is plain.

After a couple of hours, the rain started coming over the peak so we headed back to the car and were soon joined by Laura & Tim. We headed down the road and picnicked in  a rustic campground by the river. This fawn was by the road.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Some Adorable Babies

Just look at these adorable fluffy balls of feathers! The baby House Finches have left the nest and they seem to like sitting on the ledge just outside our bedroom window.

Here is another youngster - a little older - but still dependant on mom for some of her food.

The Pikes Peak Hill Climb was this weekend. Before the race, they had a promotional event downtown. As we were heading up the street, we looked back to see this biker doing high jumps. It was quite a show.

The Budweiser team was there. The Clydesdale horses are huge! We watched as they hitched them to the wagon.

Even the dog was there.

On Monday, we took two of our grandsons hiking in Red Rocks Canyon Open Space. We stopped at newspaper rock to pick up a geocache and have a picnic lunch. The name comes from all the carvings in the rock - some going back to the mid-nineteenth century (or so they would lead you to believe).

This Ruby-crowned Kinglet was flying back and forth. The white eye ring makes her eye look bigger than it really is. These are very small birds - only about 4 inches long. The males have a small, hard-to-see red spot on top of their heads, thus the name.

We also saw this deer followed by her fawn heading down the hill.

This is grandson Nate sitting on top of the bluffs in Palmer Park. We had to go over to the park to pick up a cache that we had hidden. It was not approved because Colorado Springs has rules about not placing caches on park property. We placed another on city property that was OK because it was just outside the actual park boundaries.

The cache name is Numis-Cash and has an assortment of cool numismatic collectibles - like buffalo nickels, wheat cents, Kennedy half-dollars, tokens, elongated coins, etc. So far half a dozen people have found it and have written nice notes in the electronic log at http://www.geocaching.com/.

Our roses are still beautiful - but some of the other flowers are starting to show age. It must be time to start thinking about heading back to Florida.