Back in Colorado

Br-r-r-r it's cold! We arrived back in Colorado on Thursday - with help from our friend Wendy in Florida who picked us up at 5 AM for our trip to the airport and from our friend Nancy in Colorado who transported us home after we landed back in the land of soon-to-be snow and cold. Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you to you both!

Thursday night was Einstein's Bunko at Joyce's house. It was great to see the coffee house crowd again - we always have such fun together! By the time I got home, I had been awake for almost 24 hours and was more than ready to hit the hay.

The birds had mostly abandoned us. Our feeders were barren - but I made a quick trip to the bird store and we were back in business. This is a Dark-eyed Junco. We see them only in the Fall.

Juncos are mostly ground feeders - looking for dropped seeds.

This Blue Jay was the most beautiful jay I've ever seen. First, he was huge; and second, he has a snow-white chest and belly with chrisp shades of dark and light blue with black and white accents. I took this picture through the storm door - which is why it is a little blurry - but I didn't want to spook him by opening the door. According to one of my books, there are two color versions - one dark and the other lighter. This one is the much rarer light version which is why he was so pretty.

This blur is the same jay taking a bath. He splashed water everywhere!

Over the weekend, Bill and I took a short walk in Palmer Park - our favorite place to hike. I had brought two Geocache Travel Bugs back from Florida and needed to put them in a cache here in Colorado. We located the final leg in Progression - a multi-cache that we had completed over the summer - and dropped off the bugs.

On the way back we could see that a storm was heading in our direction.

The sky was darkening and we could feel the first drops of cold, wet precipitation. Bill celebrated the cold by making a delicious pot of red chili. The house smelled delicious. Joe and Nancy came over and we ate, played dominoes and celebrated mutual November birthdays with Nancy's special cake that she knows is my very favorite.

This is Bill on Sunday morning - shoveling the back patio. Colorado Springs was blanketed with about 6 inches of heavy, wet snow - the kind that melts during the day and freezes into black ice at night.

Early today, on my way to the gym, I stopped in Palmer Park to take a couple of pictures of snow-covered Pikes Peak as the sun was just coming up. It is one of my favorite views.

The storm has passed just as quickly as it rolled in - and today is a beautiful sunny (but cold!) day.

Caloosa Bird Club

Monday was the first field trip of the season with the Caloosa Bird Club. We went birding at Little Estero Critical Wildlife Area and Bowditch Point Regional Park, both on Fort Myers Beach. There was a good turnout. As you can see, quite a few people brought spotting scopes and they set them up so the entire group could see the birds close-up without disturbing their habitats.

This is an interesting picture because it illustrates cooperative feeding with several different species of birds working together to find food. The two Brown Pelicans are a youngster (with the dark head), and a mature adult (with the white head).

A mature adult Brown Pelican. Bill took this fabulous picture.

This beautiful large shorebird is a Marbled Godwit. He is about 18 inches tall and eats worms, mollusks and crustaceans - with an occasional grasshopper to round out his diet.

I love his long pink and black bill that he uses to probe deep into the sand to find the tastiest morsels for dinner. I don't know if I ever saw one before or not - but Bill tells me it doesn't count until I have a picture.

Way up on a ledge of one of the hotels by the beach, one of the birders spotted this Peregrine Falcon. He was eating what looked like a Ruddy Turnstone.

One of the less common large herons - a Reddish Egret.

Another new bird for me - a Snowy Plover. He is a very small (6-inch) shore bird. There were a total of 5 different kinds of Plovers that the club spotted - but I was happy learning and photographing one.

The Great Egret is a graceful bird with his long, slender neck. If he had bright yellow legs - he would be a rare white morph of the Great Blue Heron (found only here in Southern Florida).

I have hundreds of pictures of these birds - but I can't help myself - I take more every time I see one.



Another bird that likes to feed on mudflats or on sandy beaches at the ocean's edge, a Willet.

He is a large, over a foot tall, shorebird that mingles with the smaller Sandpipers and Plovers.

He blends in well. Notice the Crown Conch he is just about to step on.

Lunch time! I've seen and photographed Willets before, but now I've learned them and will be able to identify them again - or so I think. So many of the shore birds look alike - and have different coloring according to the season, their age and whether they are breeding or not.

Our next stop was Bowditch Point Regional Park - home to many Gopher Tortoises.

We watched this gull grab his lunch out of the shallow water - and quickly eat it. Talk about fast food!

It was lunch time for this Osprey as well. The Osprey are just starting to think about settling down and starting their families.

After the birding group finished lunch at the picnic area at Bowditch Point - we counted the number of different birds we had seen - 42. That number is small for this group - but almost overwhelming for me.

Bill and I decided to continue our birding trip at Bunche Beach across from Bowditch Point on the way to Sanibel. One of the birders told us there might be a Bald Eagle nesting there. Bunche Beach is a very strange place. Walking down the beach, it changes from sandy to muddy. The beaches are littered with oyster shells and the further you walk, the worse it smells - but it's a great place to see a variety of shorebirds - and some very peculiar humans.

According to one web article, Bunche Beach was historically a black beach during segregation. The park has a lengthy, narrow strip of sand that stretches from just south of the Sanibel Causeway to a residential area behind Fort Myers Beach. There are great views of San Carlos Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The waves are small and water depths near the beach are very shallow. It is a popular spot for wade fishermen, kayakers, windsurfers, kitesurfers and "people wanting a reclusive beach experience."

We didn't see any Bald Eagles - but I was able to properly identify another Willet.

The wind had picked up and you can see his feathers ruffled in the breezes.

We had a great day - got lots of exercise and learned more about shore birds than my brain can hold.

Sand Sculpturing Festival

This past weekend was the Annual Sand Sculpturing Festival on Fort Myers Beach. Each contestant had from Friday to Sunday to create their masterpiece from sand.

Thursday, before they started on their individual sculptures, they worked on a group project that included all the names of the sponsors.

This piece was titled "Food Fight!" I thought it was an interesting perspective with the hotels in the background.

This picture of the winning entry was taken on Saturday morning.

And this one was taken on Monday morning after the contest was over.

There were not as many competitors this year as last and for the first time in the history of the festival, they charged a daily $5 admission to the spectators. Next year, I think we will wait until Monday morning to attend - when even the parking is free.

Pileated Woodpeckers!

Up until last year, I don't remember ever seeing a Pileated Woodpecker. He was on my list of "must finds" for a long time until we finally saw one last year here in Fort Myers. The other day I saw one at Estero Bay. Yesterday, we walked the boardwalk at Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve and saw five Pileated Woodpeckers! I took so many pictures, I was sure I would run out of film.

They are gorgeous, big (almost 2 feet tall) birds with a bright red top-notch or crest - just like Woody Woodpecker. The males have a red mustache. I like this picture with the air plant and lichen on the tree and the fall colors in the background.

It was difficult getting a good picture because his head was always moving - drumming on the tree. He was probably looking for insects, but they also drum to announce their territory - and with so many others in the area - he needed to do a lot of announcing.

The red crest and moustache are clearest in this picture.

His bright red crest was easy to spot looking through the trees.

I promise this is the last picture of a woodpecker. We saw other cool things too!

There were not too many wading birds - just a few Ibis.

Look at this Red-shouldered Hawk!

He was sitting high in a tree and we could barely see him without binoculars (but we heard him!). I had to zoom all the way in to get this shot - and then crop it way down. I usually have difficulty with the focus when there are tree limbs in the way - but this one was a pleasant surprise.

A Green Heron hunting for small fish or frogs - maybe a tasty insect or two. According to my book, they "fish" by placing insects on top of the water to attract fish to catch. Pretty smart!

This friendly Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper wanted to join us on our walk.

Look at how amazing he is! His colors were beautiful. I've read that they can produce a bad-smelling odor to deter predators, but this little guy was very friendly and nicely posed on Bill's hand so I could get his picture.

There were a couple of Double-crested Cormorants sitting on a float out in the lake. He appears to be singing - doesn't he?

And our resident alligator was resting by a fallen tree on the far side of the lake. You have to look closely as the reflection in the water is a perfect mirror of what is above water. This alligator is named "Grampa" and is about 14 feet long.

It's just a bit cooler here today - which is a nice break from the record-breaking heat we have been having. Bill is off to the R/Sea Hawks Flying Field and I'm sitting on the lanai enjoying the ducks swimming on the lake. Our friends, Dorothy and Mary Jane arrive today from the cold north and it will be good to see them.

Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge

Sanibel's Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge is a short $6 ride over the Sanibel Causeway from Fort Myers. Ding Darling features a Wildlife Drive through the 6,400-acre refuge. It is open to visitors everyday BUT Friday. Guess what day we picked to go. Another $6 - and we were back on Monday. Since I have a National Parks Lifetime Senior Pass, the $5 per car admission was waved.

This Red-bellied Woodpecker is enjoying the berries on a bush by the side of the road. He is named for the tinge of red on his belly - which I have yet to see. He is often misidentified as a Red-headed Woodpecker which has an all red head and solid black back.

Ding Darling is home to a large flock of White Pelicans. Their cousins, the Brown Pelicans, perform the wild aerobatics - diving head-first into the water - that visitors find so entertaining here in Florida. White Pelicans just kind of stand around in big groups looking pretty.

Loggerhead Shrikes are common around here. I like this picture because you can clearly see the hawk-like bill.

Another common Florida bird is the Osprey. They are large eagle-like birds and the only raptor that plunges feet-first into the water to snag fish. I usually see them flying overhead or sitting in a tree - so it was a treat to see this one standing in shallow water.

I love the profile of the Belted Kingfisher - his head looks too big for his body. He is sitting in a tree over-looking a large tidal pool deciding which fish he wants for lunch.

Little Blue Herons are fairly common near both fresh and salt water.

I think this is the rarer, slightly larger Reddish Egret, also part of the heron family.

Isn't this grumpy old man just wonderful? He is actually an immature Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

There was a large group of Pied-billed Grebes on the water but they did not want to be photographed and quickly swam away as I got closer.

I know these are just common Mourning Doves - but it is so rare to get a picture of them in a tree instead of on their usual perch - overhead wires. The nest-like mass on the limb is an air plant.

These two doves were singing love songs back and forth and did not seem to notice me.

I saw several Roseate Spoonbills and an outstanding male Magnificent Frigatebird flying overhead - but did not get decent pictures of either. Maybe next time.