Apr 16, 2011

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. :)










1 comment:

Connie said...

What a wonderful day!