Tag: birds
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Woodpecker Week
It was Woodpecker Week these last few days! The Front Range has three different common types of woodpecker, and at least one of each kind came tapping around our neighborhood. First up: The bird every homeowner loves to hate — Northern Flickers. This male demonstrates why. This is the red-shafted variety of Northern Flicker. Both…
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Cedar Waxwings
There is a tree along the walk that my husband and I take every morning with the dogs. It’s a chokecherry tree. Every spring it is covered in beautiful pink blossoms. But in late winter, it is loaded with last year’s chokecherries. And sometimes, the cedar waxwings visit. I think they are very beautiful birds…
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Mama Owl Back On Her Nest
For the first time in since before the Big Freeze, my husband and I walked along the greenbelt introduced to us last year by our friend Anne. I don’t think either of us really expected to see much — it’s January, for crying out loud! But we needed to see something besides the inside of…
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Before the Freeze
I went out to our local greenbelt last night to get one more walk in before the deep freeze hits tonight. There were about a half-dozen hooded mergansers floating on the water as the sun began to set. Above, an adult female is behind a juvenile male. My husband and I had to read Cornell’s…
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Update on the Northern Flicker Nest …
Several weeks ago, I posted some of my favorite nature photographs in honor Nature Photography Week https://amylawscigeek.com/2024/06/10/nature-photography-week-day-2/, including one of a Red-shafted Northern Flicker poking it’s head out of a hole in an crabapple tree. In that post, I said that the tree was often considered for a nest by Flickers, but never used, because…
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A Day Shooting Birds at The Reservoir
My friend and I took a walk around the reservoir today. Of course I took my camera. As a coming-out-of-covid present to myself, I bought a new, big lens a year ago. I do okay with it when it is on a tripod, but what fun is that? On the other hand, I’m still not…
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Red-tailed Hawk in the Backyard
In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed several instances of a hawk flying fast and low through our back yard. I had assumed it was an accipitor — either a Cooper’s or a sharp-shinned hawk that specializes in hunting in open forests like back yards. But while my husband and I were out working in…
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Goldfinches in the Backyard — sunshine on the wing!
I saw my first American Goldfinch thirty years ago as I was walking through a park. At first glance, I thought somebody’s parakeet had escaped. They are that bright a yellow. For the next few years, I saw them occasionally in our backyard. But they have been absent for many years. But to my delight,…
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Cold wet weather forces birds to feeder
The last week has been cold and wet here along the Front Range. A bedraggled, while still handsome, male lazuli bunting landed on our feeder for a few moments. Male Bullocks Oriel dropped in, then almost immediately flew on. I usually see these birds in the foothills just west of my house, so he probably…
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Baby Owls have Fledged!
It’s official — all three of the baby owls that I’ve been watching have fledged. The owlets have left the nest! We found the babies and one of the adults in a tree across from their nest. I know it looks like one or two of them are hanging from the branches, but that’s just…
Amy Law, Science Geek 