Jun 4, 2010

Early June

Highlights this Week:

Pawnee Grasslands on Tuesday, where I was completely not expecting this Red-headed Woodpecker!


I followed him around Crow Valley Campground for awhile, 
almost dizzy with pleasure at getting to see this bird.

Heading toward the Pawnee Buttes:


Sleeping Fox and


Not-so-sleeping Fox. Just before the fox
I saw the "burrowing owl fence post shot"
of my dreams, and was 5 seconds too slow.   Grrr.
Something to look forward to :)


At Pawnee Buttes the usual suspects:


Rock Wren

 

Western Kingbird (everywhere)


This Brown Thrasher was in the exact spot Brad and I 
watched one last year!


A few owls on the way home (of course not posing beautifully 
on a fence post 10 feet from the car!!!) Grrr. 


Wednesday I went to Lower Latham, visited with the Avocets and enjoyed listening to the Marsh Wren commotion. Unlike at Crow Valley, there's a little less water here now:



Blue-winged Teals


American Avocet


Black-necked Stilt


Common Yellow-throat, new for me at Lower Latham

Wednesday afternoon I stopped at the Environmental Learning
Center in Fort Collins:





Today a visit to Bobcat Ridge, where I saw no snakes, one coyote who hightailed it, and one mouse/lizard who did the same:


Towhees everywhere...this one more cooperative than most.


A Busy Wren


So I thought I saw the back of a Lazuli Bunting (something I've only 
caught fleeting glimpses of.) Then it flew and I thought 
I heard it. (ipod confirmed I did.) But I couldn't find it.
So I sat down (for an hour or so) listening to the Bunting and not finding
it. Out of nowhere comes this Yellow-breasted Chat! (something else I've only caught 
the barest of glimpses of.)

I entertained myself watching the chat; the bunting stopped
singing. I gave up and walked away. Then the bunting started singing again.

 

Where is he? (Keep in mind this photo only shows a portion of
one of the two trees I was staring at for an hour.)


Ohhh.


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