Manitou Springs Day 2

Royal Gorge Railroad and Park:

With a little extra time before heading to the train, we made a quick first visit to the park:

windy. and lovely. What was (until recently) the highest suspension

bridge in the world.

from above....

So you see the red dot? By the end of the day we grew brave enough

to give it a try.... 

To the train. Halloween weekend. Costumed little people

trick-or-treating in the cars. Nice!

Brad's Eight.

and from below...

there's that red dot of a tram again!

These are fab. I love them!

Views from the Incline Train:

Respite.

Manitou Springs Day One

Garden of the Gods and Cave of the Winds:

Townsend's Solitaire finds a shady spot...

Scrub Jay posing.

those Kissing Camels!

RED ROCK.

Hangin' at the Cave of the Winds:

Dark.

Snow Day at Crow Valley

The unexpected SNOW DAY led me out to Crow Valley. So many flocks of birds circling around in the snowy skies on the way in, I figured I'd find at least someone.... Initially silent, except for the ever-so-often crashing down of tree limbs and plop of falling snow.

The first inhabitant, from off in the distance, proved mammal:

One of a bunch, and pretty irritated with my intrusion.

Next up, a less concerned Downy.

I plodded along (and I do mean plodded) figuring I'd find at least some juncos...

Again, seemingly not too impressed with my presence!

A scruffy-looking goldfinch.

and one of several raptor flyovers.

A time and a half around and I was pooped! I rested under the covered picnic tables 

to gather energy for the trek back to the car. :)

"Gosh that flicker's making funny noises!" "Hey, you're no flicker!"

It's that Red-bellied Woodpecker...last seen in Central Park, NY.... Another 

reminder that laziness is sometimes rewarded!

Goose doing their usual, serenade me as I exit.

Fall in Estes

I should get out more!

It was lovely in Estes today; Connie's bird walk:

"For Pete's sake, leave me be...I've got work to do!"

A seemingly warmer-than-usual Dipper

Coots.

Another Dipper, finding something special...

The very gorgeous and petite Ruby-crowned Kinglet

The very quiet Viestenz-Smith Park yielded some chickadees, our first good junco view of the day, and 

a bush full of Bushtits. Thanks Connie!

Birds Lately

Highlights from the last week or so:

Little pockets of birds here and there. A quiet trip to Running Deer last week.

I know, not a bird....

My first cooperative Common Yellowthroat this year...maybe next

time he'll oblige me further by perching a little closer!

On Monday I went down to Chatfield State Park to visit the Western Gull:

This wayward visitor was all sorts of cooperative. Granted he's injured, but he 

can fly and chose not as a tractor made seemingly 8 or 10 passes along the swim beach.

My first visit to Chatfield left me feeling that it wasn't so much my kind of place,

so I was really happy that I realized I could stop at Red Rocks on the way home. I made a 

quick detour to pick up some bird seed and then camped out at the

Trading Post.

The only usual un-regular who made an appearance was the Curve-billed Thrasher. 

I sat pretty close to the feeder to hide from the sun, so he may

have been a little more apprehensive than usual....I think I got some dirty looks!

(Human-studying.) In addition to the un-regulars, I was hoping to run into a 

Canyon Wren, but no such luck this trip.

Today I headed to Greeley to look for the possibly breeding Yellow-crowned Night Heron. Not so much: he would have had to walk right in front of me for me to see him I think. A birder's needle-in-haystack and I don't have the skills!! However, I've only been to Glenmere Park once before, and I'd forgotten how awesome the breeding Heron and Egret racket is. Some of them, the Snowy or Cattle Egrets, make Donald Duck noises! Also awesome, the constant Black-crowned Night Heron flyover, going from island to park trees and back again gathering sticks.

Strangely, I did manage a new bird today. Common as they are, I've managed to

miss Cattle Egrets. They're lovely. Granted I'll still be making some return trips

in search of the YCNH, but they were nice regardless.