Birds.

Birds; I'm definitely learning about who I am as a birder. Today would've been the day I'd have gone down to look for the Ross's Gull (if I'd been motivated to do so...) As I contemplated going down I kept thinking "Well if it was an owl, I'd want to go down immediately!" Granted there were all these great excuses: I'd just been in Littleton yesterday...It's COLD....I would've been stuck in Denver all day and probably would have succumbed to SHOPPING...you get the idea.

I decided I would feel best getting outside and moving a little after the Turkey Day bloat. I'm aware that while I started my excel life lists last spring I haven't updated them in months, even though I've seen several new species.

Here's another thing I'm realizing: I can appreciate the visual of the bird itself, or I can appreciate it somewhat abstractly. Today I got some more opportunities to watch some Golden-crowned Kinglets. They're fabulous - they have a sweet tiny sound and they're very fast. While continuing to fail at capturing them on "film" I'm enjoying some of the visual abstractions my failures make.

I did get some better glimpses of the tiny birds...but still not the shot I'll keep hoping for. 

They might be like the elusive Belted Kingfisher shots I've never really gotten.

Also at Young Gulch today:

Dark-eyed Juncos

Townsend's Solitaire

Stellar's Jay

Clark's Nutcracker

Mountain Chickadee

and a Mystery Raptor