Dancing Monarchs

No words are needed....

There were three Monarchs in my garden this afternoon, but I only managed to catch two together for pictures.

I'm so happy to see them!  I love to watch them flying around!

 

I'm glad they stopped in my garden and I hope it helps them a little on their migration....

Colorado Birds

I want to share with you some of the beautiful birds I saw recently on a trip to Colorado.  It's always fun to watch birds-- and seeing different ones than we have at home is exciting.  I can't claim to know much about the western birds, so I'm mostly just going to post their photos for your enjoyment.

Here's a Western Scrub Jay:

To the locals they might be considered a nuisance bird, like many people here consider our Blue Jays.  But they sure are pretty!

Also pretty, in a more subtle way, are the Mountain Bluebirds:

I doubt anyone considers them a nuisance!

I enjoyed seeing Black-billed Magpies, which are fairly common, but I had a hard time getting a good photo of one.  The one in the next photo was hiding one of his best features... his long tail!

You can see three Magpies in the next photo, and see how long their tails are.  They were pestering a Swainson's Hawk.  I didn't get a very good photo of them this time either.  They were jumping all around and I wasn't very close.  But you get the idea!

The Swainson's Hawk was a new bird on my life list... after I identified it from the photo.

We visited two nature centers, where we walked some trails and saw some beautiful scenery and more birds.  

Pine Siskin (Occasionally we have these in PA in irruption years)

Spotted Towhee (We have the similar Eastern Towhee)

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher (We have these, one made our PA property list this year for the first time)

We saw American Goldfinches (which we have in the East, and Lesser Goldfinches, which we don't.  I'm not sure which one this is!  It's a female and it's hard to tell!

Right outside the door of the Fountain Creek Nature Center sat this juvenile Cooper's Hawk.  Guess he was thinking he would get a meal from the bird feeders (and I don't mean seeds!).  But while we watched, he just sat there, having his photo taken by numerous people.

Cooper's Hawk's live all over the US, and so do the next kind of hawk... a Red-tail.  He also sat nicely for a photo.

One bird that I tried and tried to photograph were the Mountain Chickadees.  I never did get a great shot... guess I'll have to go to Colorado again sometime for that.  Sounds good!  This is the best shot I got.  They are about the same size as our Black-capped Chickadees but they have an eye stripe.

We saw three kinds of nuthatches.  The White-breasted Nuthatches like we have here in PA, and also one Red-breasted Nuthatch, which we've seen occasionally here over the years, too. 

I would love to have them again.  They are bold enough to take food right from you... one winter we fed one sunflower seeds and suet chunks from our hands.  

The other kind of nuthatches we saw were probably my favorite birds of the whole trip.  We saw them in the pines on Lookout Mountain.  There was a little flock of Pygmy Nuthatches and they were CUTE!

For you hummingbird fans out there, I have a bunch of 'western' hummingbird photos.  I believe they are probably all Broad-tailed Hummingbirds.  We talked to a lady who worked at the Bear Creek Nature Center where we watched a bunch of hummingbirds and she didn't even seem totally sure.  She told us which ones they have in their area (Broad-tailed, in summer, Rufous and Calliope-during migration).  

Here's one at their feeder:

When another one would come along, this one would chase it, much as they do here at our feeders.

We saw hummers at several locations.  The next one is at the Denver Botanical Gardens at Chatfield. 

I like that photo because you can see its tail all flared out, and its little feet!  In the next shot you can see it from the rear.

We also saw a hummer at the Manitou Springs Cliff Dwellings. Between enjoying their lovely flowerbeds, this one perched on top of a spruce branch.

And one final hummingbird shot... looking pensive.

We thought we had a 'new' bird when we saw this Flicker:

See how reddish its underwing is?  But it turns out it's 'just' a Northern Flicker.  In the eastern part of the US, they are "yellow-shafted" Northern Flickers, and in the west they are "red-shafted" Northern Flickers, but they are still considered the same species.  If the ornithologists in charge ever decide to 'un-lump' them, at least I'll have both on my life lists!

The last bird I'm going to post was flitting around by Summit Lake on Mt. Evans.   The actual summit of Mt. Evans is 14,265' but I'm not sure how high the lake is.  At that altitude, I was hoping this bird was going to be something really special.  There were just two of them I could see flying around.  I managed to take a photo of one of them when it landed briefly on a rock.  So far I have identified it as a "LBB" (otherwise known as a Little Brown Bird).  I'm guessing it could be a siskin because of its thin pointy beak.  Anyone???  ***Update:  "LBB" has been identified as an American Pipit.

No matter what it is, I admired it for it's choice of place to be, which was absolutely beautiful.  Colorado Rocky Mountain High!

This is the habitat were my LBB was living... Summit Lake near Mt. Evans.

Really Random Wrap-ups of Recent Events

Sometimes I think I should let you know what's happened since I posted about a topic.  For instance, have you been wondering about our house wrens or bluebirds?  I know, this is probably not upper most in your mind.   But just in case you have wondered, here are the wrap-ups.

Our house wrens... I still see them around-- though not in our yard anymore, and they always scold when I happen to be too close for (their) comfort.  They seem to have found safe places to hang out since they left the nest box.  Can you find two of them in the next photo?

The bluebirds are easier to see, as they like to hang out on the wires over our yard and swoop down to catch insects in the grass.  They are more graceful than when they first fledged and can hang onto the wire now without any trouble.

But they still seem to 'play' at times like the youngsters they are.  How about a game of hide-n-seek?  One is hiding, one seeking:

Early in the morning of August 28th, we had a whole bunch of barn swallows on the wire...

They might have been voting on whether it was time to head for southern climes, and I guess the vote was positive, because I have not seen one since then.

Other birds are showing up because they are migrating though.  Bald eagles migrate early - August and September.  This one made a brief stop in our swamp on August 23rd.

It caught something in the water and flew into this dead snag to eat for a few minutes.  All the other birds flew off in alarm except for one Canada Goose.

As I approached, the eagle flew off toward the south, carrying the remainder of its meal in its talons.

I'm still seeing hummingbirds but not as many.  Some of ours may have started their migration, others may be stopping here on their way south from farther north.  I will keep my feeders out for awhile yet.  And the regular bird feeders are getting busier again now that our year-round birds are (mostly) done raising their babies and are all coming to eat sunflower seeds.  I say mostly, because even today we've had fledgling goldfinches and cardinals.  

"Feed me!  Feed me!"

Warblers don't eat seeds, but sometimes they are attracted to the feeder area by all the other bird activity.  I was really glad I happened to be watching when this juvenile Prairie Warbler showed up on September 1st.  It is species #105 on our year list!

Another good sighting was the Giant Swallowtail in my flowerbed on September 2nd.  (That's a week after the first time I saw it).

 

I also saw a second Monarch today-- while I was mowing the lawn.  I had mentioned in my recent butterfly post that I hoped to get a photo if I saw another one.  Of course, I don't carry a camera with me on the mower... so I watched it for a few moments to make sure that's what I was seeing (and not just wishful thinking making a blowing orange leaf into a butterfly!)  It was definitely a Monarch!  So I turned off the mower and ran into the house to grab my camera.  But by the time I returned, it was gone.  It might have been migrating, too.

I have one final bit of random-ness for this post.  Bald birds.  Yes.... bald birds, though not as in bald eagle, more like bald songbirds.  

I had a photo of a bald blue jay, too, but it was just too weird and ugly to post!  Now,  I could pretend to be an expert on this subject, but I'm not.  I had to read up on bald birds on the internet.  You really can find anything on the internet!  I found a very interesting article.  So, if you want to learn about this peculiar topic, here's the link.  And if you are completely uninterested, I understand that, too!