Birds and Snow

Connie's Birding the Big Thompson at Sylvan Dale Ranch today. The Christmas Bird Count numbers at Sylvan Dale have always made me eager to bird the ranch. Today was my first opportunity, and it was GREAT!

Pre-walk wintery gathering.

Singing Dipper.

We saw A LOT of Bluebirds. Mountain and Western. Maybe 

more than I've ever seen before all together. Lovely.

Best time of year for snow on blooms.

Snowy spider web.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet! We saw one and then two more

with a group of Bushtits.

Broad-winged Hawk...A little irritated with us for disturbing

it during its magpie meal.

The light never got amazing for photos, but the snow did clear...

30 species on a snowy April day. Wonder what June would be like...

The rest of today's photos:

Pawnee Friends

A drive out to CR 96 this morning to see who's around. I'd heard reports of Mountain Plover and McCown's Longspur; figured I'd give it a shot:

So maybe I wouldn't have needed to drive so far to find some 

Meadowlarks....they certainly were plentiful out on the prairie though!

Horned Larks too! No Lark Buntings yet though.

A couple of kestrel and other assorted raptors.

And yes! Mountain Plover. I've only seen them once before. They're 

lovely. This was very needle in haystackish....even when 

I was sure I was looking at one, I had to keep re-finding it....

A Pawnee surprise; a pair of rock wrens who really wanted their photos taken. 

While out taking photos of rock wrens, this large Sage Thrasher flew in and landed on my roof!

Seriously! This is an uncropped view. Flew in, pondered whether a blue subaru 

was a really a good landing choice, and flew out. Made my day.

Well I guess my day was made several times, 'cause look who's back in town! 

Earlier in the day I'd been thinking about how I'd never actually seen

burrowing owl along CR 96, even though they're the poster child for the

Birding Trail, and lo and behold...

Also on view today: a pair of McCown's Longspur,  one Pawnee-style blackbird, robins and dove.

Exactly the sort of peaceful quiet drive I needed today. :)

Spring on it's Way (Despite the Snow)

Even though I spent most of yesterday at school, I managed to find nice outside moments both before and after. In the morning, I walked around Riverbend Ponds and after school I went over to Lower Latham in search of Short-earred Owls.

Lots of ducks at Riverbend, these being the resident Ring-necked Ducks. Also present:

American Widgeon, Gadwall, Cinnamon Teal, Blue-winged Teal and one more (see below.)

First surprise of the morning went like this: "Well that looks like one of those Pigeon-

deterrent plastic Great-horned Owls....but there wouldn't be one of those here...." Okay, I've 

been a little sleepy lately.

A Mallard for the silhouette group.

Next lovely surprise of the morning: Wood Ducks in trees. Just a couple of

weeks ago we saw a pair from a distance on Connie's Loveland walk and I 

couldn't wait to someday get to see them a little closer....Hmmmmm

Not-so-shy Widgeon.

Beautiful little Blue-winged Teal.

After a couple of hours wait, sadly no Short-earred Owls at Latham. (Alas this night time 

owling is not really for me...) However, the third lovely surprise of the day:

Sandhill Cranes, maybe on their way to Nebraska? and I didn't even have to drive

to Monte Vista. :)