DFO trip & Brown Creeper

The Denver Field Ornithologists brought a group of birders to Canon City two days ago to try for the rare Golden-crowned Sparrow and bird at some of Canon City's great birding areas. I accompanied the group for the first half of their trip including birding at the Tunnel Drive area where the Golden-crowned Sparrow was seen by all participants. Then I brought them to the Canon City Riverwalk which was very birdy with a number of Cassin's Finches, a species fairly uncommon here.

We also had great views of this Brown Creeper that was first intent on probing the tree bark for nuggets of invertabrates, then stopped to groom. The cinnamon feathers on the bird's rump are visible in both pics. Though the top pic loses quality when enlarged, the bottom pic really shows feather details well enlarged so do double-click on it. SeEtta

Cryptic Brown Creepers

Fall is a lovely time in SE Colorado. I enjoy it's mellowness. It is a time of low precipitation and moderate temperatures throughout much of this area, with few storms. There is many pleasant days to go birding.

At the Canon City Riverwalk both Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees continue with their dee-dee-dee calls. Singing second soprano are the White-breasted Nuthatches. And the Brown Creepers provide the high pitched soprano "tseee, tseee, tseee" calls to complete the harmony.

These are pics of one such Brown Creeper I photographed as it probed between the ridges of the tree bark. If it wasn't for their high-pitched calls, they would avoid detection much of the time since their cryptic plumage helps them to blend in with the bark.

Brown Creepers & warm-up in lower Arkansas Valley

The weather was great today in much of SE Colorado. When I left home in Canon City at 9 am it was climbing to the upper 40's already. When I drove through Pueblo it was almost 50. And by the time my meeting in Rocky Ford was over it was around 50 degrees F there. Though there was still snow on the ground in and around Rocky Ford, the sun and temp and a little wind were causing a lot of melting.

And the temps are predicted to be into at least the 40's most of this coming week and even climbing toward 60 when the Snow Goose Festival starts on Friday, Feb 23 (honest, I'm not making this up, check it out).

I took these photos of 2 of the Brown Creepers I watched today. Look close (double-click on pic)at right side of top photo--the bird's eye, part of its head and its bill are visible though this bird really blends into the bark of the tree. In the bottom pic the bird's beak is pointed straight up. (Note-as it was dark inside the large conifer where these birds were foraging I did edit these photos to lighten and make the birds more visible).

I will post more about the birds I saw today and the unusual place I saw a pronghorn plus more pics, but not til tomorrow as I'm bushed.
SeEtta