SE Colorado Birding

Birding and discussion: A conservation-oriented birding blog that emphasizes low-impact birding and sustainable birding practices together with the enjoyment of birds. Southeast Colorado offers a diversity of habitats which provide premiere birding opportunities. Save Sabal Palm

Monday, June 30, 2008

W.Wood-pewee on nest

This pic shows a Western Wood-pewee on it's nest that I found next to the Arkansas River near Canon City. I am beginning to think that this bird is young as I have walked by this nest daily, usually twice a day, and only seen a bird on it one time in 2 weeks (certainly she may be on the nest for many hours when I'm not there).

As can be seen, the nest is compact and well woven. Per Birds of North America online the nests are "neatly woven of grasses, plant fibers, bark, plant down, feathers, and hair bound together with spiders’ webs; lined with fine grasses, hair; decorated with moss, insect puparia, exuvia, or bud scales." SeEtta

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Communal feeding-40+ hawks

Yesterday I found a field south of La Junta with more than 40 hawks. They were mostly Swainson's Hawks, a species known for it's communal feeding, but there were several Ferruginous Hawks there also. There was a mixture of ages with adults and birds in juvenal plumage. And I was really surprised to see 3 quite young hawks, about half the size of the adult Swainson's Hawk that was attending them. These young hawks seemed too small to have fledged from their nest and there were no trees nearby that might support a nest that they could return to.

The field in which these hawks were feeding was a hay field that had been cut. There were cattle grazing on the hay stubble and the hawks followed the cattle as they moved further away. I saw grasshoppers on the road where I was standing and think it is likely that the hawks were feasting on these insects which make up a good part of the diet of Swainson's Hawks (Ferruginous are known to eat insects also but usually feed on small mammals). The cattle may have been stirring up the grasshoppers as they walked around and grazed on the grass.

Unfortunately the nearest hawks were about 200 feet away, too distant for my DSLR camera. This pic is of one of the almost full-sized Swainson's in juvenal plumage that I took by digiscoping, a new modality I am still trying to learn. I couldn't get a pic of the feeding group as they were spread out up to hundreds of feet from each other. SeEtta

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

Please take my short poll on right

I just added a short poll found on the right side of this page. I would like to get some feedback from those of you who read my blog to see if you are happy with what I am doing or have other preferences. SeEtta

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Friday, June 20, 2008

Grebe chick swallowing fish

I returned to Lake Henry yesterday to watch the grebes some more and try to get some better pics of the chicks (they are so small, the pics of them do not enlarge well). I might add here that Clark's Grebes look quite similar to Western Grebes but the white on their faces goes just above the eye and onto the lores, while the white goes below the eye in Western Grebes. Also, Clark's Grebes have brighter yellow bills, with paler backs, less extensive black on flanks, and some more subtle characteristics. There is a caveat regarding characteristics since during winter some Clark's Grebes have an intermediate plumage including the white not extending above the eye.I was delighted to watch as a parent grebe fed a fish, which looked awfully big for the size of this chick, to a chick. In the top pic, the Clark's Grebe parent has come to the surface with a fish in it's beak. In the middle pic, the chick has the fish in it's beak and with it's head pointed up it is trying to swallow the fish while the parent watches nearby. During the process of swallowing the fish, the parent intervened a few times either taking the fish back or maybe helping reposition it for it's chick (they were over a hundred feet away and there were big waves and so I couldn't always see exactly what was happening).The last pic shows the chick working on swallowing the fish from a more close-up perspective--actually the chick successfully swallowed the fish shortly after I took this pic. SeEtta

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Grebe eye color

I should have noted that Western and Clark's Grebes have red eyes (described as scarlet in Bird of North America online)as shown in this pic. One of the regular blog readers mistook this for the artificial "red eye" sometimes caused by photography.

Additionally, both Eared and Horned Grebes also have red/scarlet irises. Many birds have eyes of various colors including yellow, white and black as well as red.

I have run into the problem of photographically induced "red eye" when taking pictures of owls with a flash. It is also a common problem when photographing dogs. But the red eyes on all the Western and Clark's Grebes pics here come naturally. You can get a real close-up view of the eyes by double-clicking on this pic. SeEtta

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Black Phoebe family update

Day 11--Observed an adult Black Phoebe feeding two fledglings in protected area. A third independent bird (now called a juvenile as it is independent) foraged along the river where I have seen it for past several days.

Day 12--Observed 5 Black Phoebes today. An adult was feeding two fledglings in the protected area. At one point the adult had been taking a break from the work of feeding these fledglings and when a fledgling approached it the adult flew away, followed by the fledgling. Maybe the adult will stop feeding the fledglings soon. And a juvenile plus one more Black Phoebe of unknown age were flycatching along the river.

Day 13--Independence at last! The last two Black Phoebes in juvenal plumage were sallying after insects today in the the protected area. There was no sign of any adult bird. This is two days longer than what is noted in Birds of North America (BNA) online. BNA notes that Black Phoebes attain independence from 7-11 days after fledging, but note the information is based on limited observations.

Day 14--I made this observation today. I didn't get out until late afternoon (up to today I made at least 2 visits/day) and found only 2 juveniles foraging along the river. SeEtta

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

W.Grebes with babies on their backs

Both Western and Clark's Grebes engage in "back-brooding" of their young--after the young hatch, they climb onto their parent's back "within minutes of hatching" according to Birds of North America (BNA) online. They remain sheltered within the feathering on the back of either the mother or father, who take turns brooding the young.
As these pics show, the baby grebes will sometimes stick their heads up to look around. The hatchling grebes can be seen better by double-clicking on the pics to enlarge. I took these pics yesterday at Lake Henry, which is located north of La Junta. This year a vegetative mat formed on part of the lake and hundreds of Western and Clark's Grebes began nesting there.

Interestingly, when a parent is done with their turn at brooding, "the parent rises in water and flaps wings, young fall off and move to other parent. Adults may assist young in climbing back by holding one foot stiffly out on surface to rear, this used as foothold." (also from BNA)The non-brooding parent grebe catches fish and brings it to the brooding parent, a behavior I saw one time yesterday. SeEtta

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Kansas City searcher

I saw that someone from KC, Mo had used Yahoo to search my name. I can only believe this is someone who knows me. If that person reads this, please leave a note by hitting the comment button on the most recent post. SeEtta

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Monday, June 16, 2008

Sunbathing Black Phoebes

In between visits to the Black Phoebe family I have been following at my friend's property, I visited a second pair of Black Phoebes that appear to be nesting under a RR bridge over the Arkansas River east of Florence. While watching the pair, I was surprised to see one Black Phoebe, then the other, engage in sunbathing. Since these birds stay about 75 feet across the river, I wasn't able to get a good enough pic of this behavior to post.

Over the hundreds of days I have spent observing Black Phoebes in Fremont Co, I have never seen them engage in sunbathing. Though some other species of birds are known for sunbathing, Birds of North America online states that there is no information on sunbathing by Black Phoebes. I suspect there is a paucity of knowledge about this species. SeEtta

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Day 10--5 Black Phoebes still together

Earlier in the afternoon I spotted an adult and two fledglings back in the protected area with the adult working hard to feed one or more fledglings. I did find an apparently older sibling (eggs are usually laid one per day so one fledgling is several days older than the bird whose egg was laid last) flycatching independently on the river (the independence marks the move from fledgling to juvenile). That is the bird in this pic that just caught a good sized dragonfly (looks like a Twelve-spotted Skimmer).

When I returned late in the afternoon they had moved to the river. Since our temp had gone to 95, I appreciated the relative coolness near the river. However it is more of a challenge to observe them as they tend to stay under trees and other vegetation and I cannot go to the opposite bank to view them. I could hear them quite well and carefully walked closer. I was surprised to see all 5 Black Phoebes still together. SeEtta

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

Day 9--Black Phoebe family-action later that day

I returned in the late afternoon on Day 9 and found the family had returned to their shady shelter in the trees overhanging the water. I could see an adult catching insects and bringing them into the foliage, which always caused a small uproar of "baby bird chirping" (sounds like many other baby birds when parents bring them food). Frustrated that I still could not see the fledglings inside the cover of the limbs and leaves, I carefully came up from the other side where I continued being frustrated as they just weren't visible from any location (at least any location where I would not disturb them).

As I sat watching for a glimpse of a bird sallying out after an insect, 2 Common Grackles flew into the area where the Black Phoebes were located. The grackles were making loud grackles calls and there was a hub-bub, then the I saw 3 Black Phoebes fly out and away from the disruption. The grackles kept up with their squawking and after a few minutes I found (when it flew out, followed again by the grackles) that they had followed/chased a Cooper's Hawk into the tree. It was getting late and I didn't want to stress the Black Phoebes by trying to refind them so left for the day.
SeEtta

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Day 9--A day in the life of the Black Phoebe family


Day 9-(actually yesterday--it wasn't bad enough I was still behind from writing comments but I got a virus in my computer and have had big problems editing pics). I dropped by in the morning to check on the Black Phoebe family and after a short time I heard their distinctive calling ("tsip" but often sounds like "seep" or "sip" to me). The fledglings were for the first time away from water--they were perched on a limb on top of a pile of old tree limbs. Was I surprised to see 4 Black Phoebes sitting next to each other on this limb and they all looked like fledglings, how could that be? I wasn't sure as they were more than 150 feet away in the shade and before I could get my scope on them a 5th Black Phoebe flew in and fed one of the fledglings then 2 birds flew off!

This not-so-great pic shows 3 Black Phoebes, all fledglings, that were left perched on that limb. I sat in my car watching for either of the other two Black Phoebes to return in hopes I could see if the 5th bird was a fourth sibling or the other parent. After 20 minutes with no action, I gave up with plans to return in the later afternoon. SeEtta

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

Black Phoebe Family saga--fledgling growing up


Day 8--Wow, one of the fledglings is really growing up--it flew around the sheltered area and then out more than a hundred feet away from the sheltered area. This is the first time I have seen one of the fledglings being this independent. This is the fledgling in this pic. The brown tips on flight feathers are apparent. There is still some residual orange gape that is visible when pic is double-clicked to enlarge it.

I could still hear other fledglings in their tree thicket and a parent still is bring ing food. SeEtta

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Much more on Black Phoebe family

Sorry to leave people hanging but I had to focus on writing comments from my Audubon chapter and the state Audubon on an Environmental Impact Statement for a major water project affecting natural resources in SE Colorado (it took me about 20 hours to write the 8 pages and 1 page of bibliography, now my mind is numb). I did, however, run over to my friend's to look for and keep track of the Black Phoebe family which fortunately settled in at the protected area where I refound them on Day 4. Unfortunately they demonstrated a lot of sensitivity to my photographing them (darn digital cameras make a lot of noise relative to the old 35mm cameras) so I didn't get any usable pics for Days 5-7 since I didn't want to disturb the family.

By the way, I am numbering days with Day 1 being the day the youngsters fledged

Day 5--I saw a fledgling sally out after an insect and it caught it successfully. Later I was near the nesting location and found 1 adult and 1 fledgling very near the nest--what a surprise. In past years I have observed the adults splitting up the fledglings with each taking one or two and taking care of them separately--hopefully that is the case, which would indicate that the 3rd fledgling actually survives. Maybe it was the youngest and not as strong a flier so a parent kept it near nest instead of moving with the other 2 fledglings to the protected area that is almost a quarter mile away.

Day 6--At least one parent bringing food to fledglings that are mostly staying hidden in a Russian Olive in a small thicket of tree limbs and snags overhanging the water. This provides a nice shady area for the fledglings to get out of the warmish sun.

Day 7--Occasionally a fledgling would emerge from the trees to sally after an insect. At least one parent still feeding them.

Much more to come. SeEtta

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Monday, June 09, 2008

Black Phoebe family refound


I pleasantly surprised to refind the Black Phoebe family today. As this is day 4 since the young fledged, I didn't think I would see them as they move further from the nest. And they did move almost a quarter mile away to the location I saw one of the adults yesterday. And a great place it is--still water, overhanging trees, protected from the wind by a hay barn and a number of dragonflies and other flying insects (in fact a mayfly perched on the inside upholstery on my car door--they are really small).

Both Black Phoebe parents were actively sallying after insects which they would quickly take to the fledglings that were well protected (and non visible due to all the branches and tree leaves) in some trees with branches that were overhanging the water. A few times one of the fledglings flew out into the open onto one of the branches but it returned quickly to the shady area within the tree branches. When one of the fledglings perched near an adult, the shortness of it's tail relative to the adult's tail was most evident.

The parent bird in this photo has a good sized dragonfly in it's beak. I was impressed by the size of the dragonflies that the parents were catching to feed the fledglings--one appeared to almost 4 inches in wing span, which would make a large meal for a Black Phoebe. SeEtta

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Sunday, June 08, 2008

Another day in the life of Black Phoebes

Today is the third day that the Black Phoebe fledglings have been out of the nest. I found them, and an adult, several hundred feet from the nest site. This is consistent with my prior experience with this species--they stay near the nest the first day or so then move the fledglings further out on day 3. It is also my experience that the Black Phoebes move away so I have been unable to refind them after day 3 so this is likely the last time I will see (or at least know that they are the birds born here) these fledglings.

Unfortunately I only saw 2 fledglings so it is likely that one has already perished. This is consistent with information in Birds of North America (BNA) online which states, "1 to several young often disappear during first 3 d after fledging." BNA also notes that the family moves away after day 3. The fledglings were demonstrating strong flight skills today and had flown across to the other side of the river, which is about 100 feet. The parent and fledglings were all calling fairly frequently (presumably the fledglings were calling to communicate their hunger and the parent may return calls to keep contact or give instructions to avoid the human with the big eye, as I imagine my camera lens appears to them). The fledglings were keeping to the overhanging vegetation and flew away after I took 2 photos.

Interestingly I saw an adult Black Phoebe a quarter mile away. I don't think it was the parent that was attending the fledglings since that bird was very busy feeding them, and they were all still in the same area when I walked back. Maybe one of the parents was taking a break from parental duties. SeEtta

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Saturday, June 07, 2008

The Black Phoebes have fledged



Here are the fledgling Black Phoebes from the nest in the previous post. They fledged day before yesterday. The parent(s) brought them to the tree closest to the nest as I have observed during prior nestings. This tree is only about 100 feet from the nest but is a great tree for hiding new fledglings as it has many branches overhanging the river below. I saw all three fledglings but was unable to get a pic with all of them together. Actually they were again a challenge to photograph as they were perched on the overhanging branches with lots of other branches in between. At least one parent was attending them and I watched as one was fed. The brown edging indicative of immature Black Phoebes is quite evident in these pics as is the orangish gape. Their tarsi (legs) are in between the orange of hatchlings and the brownish-black of adult birds. The same is true of the toes which are turning from the yellow found on hatchlings towards the brownish black found on adults. Juvenile Black Phoebes are a darker black than adults, which is reflected in both pics. Otherwise they look like adult birds with blackish upperparts and white underparts. The fledglings were making calls similar to adult, presumably the "tsip" calls identified in Birds of North Americaonline. SeEtta

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Nesting Black Phoebes


Typically found along streams in the southwest, this species is found in only a few locations in Colorado. They are found in southwest Colorado, southeast Colo near the New Mexico border, in Pueblo County and since 1995 in Fremont County where I live. Since I found the first Black Phoebe in Fremont Co, they have returned and increased in numbers and nesting locations and recently have been found in Salida (just a short distance from the western edge of Fremont Co where they have nested for several years).I found the first nesting Black Phoebes on private property near Canon City. They nested under a foot bridge over a canal. After nesting in an open area where Barn Swallows also nested and frequently flew by, they moved their nest to under the center section of the bridge (as shown in the second pic) that is difficult for the the swallows to access. It is also difficult to photograph since there is usually water in the canal. Earlier this week the canal was shut down and I took the opportunity to obtain these pics of the Black Phoebe nestlings in their nest.The top pic is a close up of one of the Black Phoebe nestlings while the 3rd pic shows this same nestling with the wings and tail of a second nestling that is lying in the opposite direction (with head not visible). Getting photos with the nest only a few inches from the bottom of the concrete (and setting back about 18 inches from the opening) was challenging (there is a reflection from the concrete at the top of the pics). I was several feet back from the nest and I stayed only a few minutes so as to minimize disrupting the birds. As I've noted before, I am happy with reasonable pics like these since getting really good pics would involve a high level of intrusion. Do double-click on the top pic to get a super close-up view.

I could see there were 3 nestlings in the nest, but the 3rd bird was on the other side of the nest so didn't show up in any pics. I figured these nestlings were getting close to fledging and as noted in the next post, they did fledge only 3 days after I took these pics. SeEtta

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