Ever since I almost missed the Cedar Waxwings at the beginning of March, I’ve been toting my camera along when we take the dogs on their morning walk around the neighborhood. That thing weighs six pounds!

But it is worth it.

Part of our normal walk takes us through an “old growth” part of the neighborhood — the trees planted there fifty years ago mostly survived Colorado’s tree un-friendly climate and are now mature. Very often, a pair of Cooper’s hawks make their nest in that area, so I try to keep my eyes peeled.

But rather than see them, I heard an odd single “wha” call — it sounded like just one honk of the nuthatch call. Birds of the World says that female Coopers make this call when they are accepting food from males. A visual search of likely trees showed two birds in a tree that Cooper’s have used before. Yay! I was able to get just one shot before they took off.

Further along on our walk, a male spotted towhee was singing up a storm. Look at his bright red eye! Birds of the World says that mature towhees have red eyes; immatures are brown.

When I first spotted this bird, I had no idea what it was, but the Merlin app identified it as a dark-eyed junco. Say what?

But it does have dark eyes, and a pale beak, both of which says “dark-eyed junco“. It’s not an Oregon form, including pink sided and slate (they have dark heads). I think it might be a very pale grey-headed (grey head and sides).

And then we saw a Raven pillaging a garbage bag. Look at the beak on that bird! (The little dangly bit hanging from it’s lower beak is a curl of plastic from the trash bag — not good for Raven digestion.) I once saw three Crows flying to the sides of a Raven, herding it to some trash bags that had been put out the night before. The Raven’s beak can punch through the bags, while evidently Crow’s cannot. Ravens are big birds — I read recently that an adult Raven was as big as a Red-tailed Hawk. Seeing this bird, I could believe it.

I’d be really upset if I missed all these shots, so I guess I’ll continue to tote my camera along. Maybe I’ll get a better strap for it …