Late-ish Osprey and early-ish Am Dipper

I continue to see, and sometimes hear the thin cry, of a latish Osprey. Most Osprey leave the state by the middle of October according to "Colorado Birds." However we have had a very mild fall, with the first snow not falling until today, so lots of northern species like waterfowl are just still moving in so I guess this Osprey hasn't had a big need to move south. Today it perched on a large cottonwood overlooking not only the Arkansas River but also Four Mile Creek which is a major tributary. That is where I took this pic.

And I first saw an American Dipper on 10-15 on the Arkansas River adjacent to the Canon City Riverwalk. I didn't see the dipper today but heard a little of it's very melodic song.

There has been a lot of fresh bear scat on the Riverwalk which I have seen on the 5 times I have walked there this past week.

Update on nesting Osprey at Pueblo Res

Yesterday I stopped at the Pueblo Reservoir to check on the Osprey that I found building a nest (posted on 3-26-07) as well as the nesting Great Horned Owl (next post). I found that this Osprey was still working on building its nest but had added quite a bit of material. Though I was more than a thousand feet away, the bird let out some alarm calls (interesting since some people claim that Osprey can nest with human activity nearby). At least this bird did not welcome human disturbance, even distant disturbance.

This photo shows the nest with the Osprey perched on another pole a little further away. Double-click on the pic to enlarge it.
SeEtta

Osprey building nest on artificial nest platform

I stopped at the Pueblo Res after an appointment in that area today. I was delighted to spot one of the Ospreys carrying nest material. I positioned myself to watch and hopefully get some photos. Then I spotted the nest the Osprey was building. It was being built on one of the artificial nest platforms erected by our local electric utility (Aquila) that I posted about last month. It certainly didn't take these birds anytime since these nest platforms were just erected a month or so ago, and the Ospreys just started arriving in Pueblo last week.

The top photo is when the Osprey was headed out to get nest material, the middle photo shows it with nest material in it's claws and the last photo is of the artificial nest platform with the beginnings of a nest.

After the Osprey would return to the nest platform with more nest material, it would go about arranging this material with it's claws and beak. The process often involved a lot of wing flapping as the bird lifted off a little to facilitate the positioning of the sticks.
SeEtta