Birds in my Backyard

Saturday, October 11, 2008 was a very exciting day in my backyard. We had a Lewis's Woodpecker stop by our woodpecker style suet feeder. After eating, it found a nice spot in the tree where it stayed for about the next three hours napping and occasionally checking for bugs in the tree bark. After the Lewis's Woodpecker was finished eating, we saw a Flicker on the suet feeder, but it had a red triangle on the back of it's head/neck. I went crazy looking through all of my Colorado bird books and couldn't find it. So, when I came into work today, Sunday, October
12th, I grabbed a Kaufman's Field Guide and found out it was "Yellow-shafted" Flicker. We really enjoyed watching our "new" Flicker and it's mate for several hours.

How Swainson's Hawks Got Their Name

Swainson’s Hawks were named after William Swainson, who lived from 1789 to 1855. An English writer, artist and naturalist, he seemed to be followed by misfortune everywhere. On a collection trip to Brazil in 1816 to 1817 he ran into a national revolution. Despite great and effort and achievements, he always had trouble making ends meet and funding his studies. He received much criticism for speaking out for the Quinary System, a method of classifying all living things, while everyone else used the more popular Linnaean System we still use today. In an attempt to start his life over, he moved to New Zealand and lost his entire collection on the way. He lives on today with nine birds named after him, including the Swainson’s Hawk, the Swainson’s Thrush, and the Swainson’s Warbler. The warbler was named by John James Audubon, the hawk by Charles-Lucien Bonaparte.

Bonaparte, who lived from 1803-1857, was a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. One of the foremost ornithologists of his time, he is mostly forgotten to history because of more famous contemporaries such as John James Audubon. He spent eight years studying North American birds and published American Ornithology. After returning to Europe he continued to study birds, but also got more involved in politics, including the independence of Italy.

Two famous ornithologists were behind the name of Swainson’s Hawks. If you discovered a new bird, what would you name it?

Itasca State Park and the Headwaters of the Mississippi

This past week Diane and I, in an effort to “hold on to summer”, took a trip to visit our daughter, son-in-law, and grand kids in Saint Paul, Minnesota. There we caravanned north to visit and play in Minnesota’s Itasca State Park. I mention this in our blog as I discovered it to be a fantastic natural playground for those who love to take in history, flora, and fauna. Itasca State Park is located about 160 mile northwest of Minneapolis. It houses the source of the mighty Mississippi river as it begins its 2,552 mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Named by explorer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in 1832 from the lain words verITAS CAput meaning “true head,” Itasca was established in 1891 to preserve remnant stands of virgin pine and to protect the basin around the Mississippi’s source. The historical significance, lodge, camp ground, multiple lakes, visitor center, and numerous trails make this 32,000 acre park a famous and cultural landmark well worth any outdoor adventure.

While at Itasca we hiked, kayaked, and crossed the Missippii River on foot! It trickles out of the north end of Lake Itasca and is enjoyed by visitors who kick off their shoes and wade through the 12 inch deep water 10 feet to the other side. Looking around a common sight to enjoy are diving Loons and soaring Bald Eagles. We chose a trail to hike called Dr. Robert’s trail along the lake and learned a lot about the indigenous plant life and how native Indians utilized their natural resources. Along the way birding we observed American Redstarts, Brown Creepers, Hairy Woodpeckers, grebes, cormorants, hummingbirds, chickadees, nuthatches, kinglets, finches, and new families of Northern Flickers.

Itasca State Park, a worthy stop for anyone looking for outdoor adventure.

Enjoy these pictures of Common Loons on Lake Itasca taken with a Leica V-Lux camera. Visit us also at http//:www.frontrangebirding.com

Vociferous Baby Birds

This summer I have had numerous baby birds, Sparrows, Finches, Grackles, Starlings, Robins, and Flickers, all coming to my backyard to feed their new little fledglings. It's been such a joy to watch all the new babies getting fed. At first I thought the Grackles and Starlings had the loudest lot of babies, until the Flickers arrived with their new little ones. The Flicker babies make the most racket of them all. They are slightly smaller than the adults and have not guite got all their pretty markings and colors yet, but they sure can raise a ruckus. I can always tell when the Flicker babies are there. As of this posting, I am still getting Finch and Sparrow babies with their little pin feathers sticking up on their heads like little punk rock stars! They are so cute, mouths open wide and flapping their stubby little wings and making as much noise as possible so that the feeding parent will feed them first.



On another note, I finally am rid of most of the Grackles and Starlings. They were draining my hopper feeder on a dailey basis. This was getting rather expensive, so I switched to putting just safflower in the hopper and now all I have are just a few straglers here and there. The little song birds love the safflower and I'm not going broke feeding the birds.

Say's Phoebe

A Say's Phoebe stopped by to visit today. Last summer I had a family spend a day in the yard, sitting on the fence and waiting for their parents to bring them bugs. I think this one was a juvenile as well. The wings of adults are a solid color, instead of the rufous bars this one has. I've heard them around the neighborhood all summer and got some good pics today.

Golden Eagle Nest at Roxborough State Park

A few weeks ago my husband Kevin and I took my Vortex Sandpiper Spotting Scope and digital camera to Roxborough State Park to try digiscoping a Golden Eagle nest. We found the nest pretty easily because the nestling was making a loud screeching call over and over again. It was up in the rocks on the hogback, and much easier to see with binoculars or spotting scope than with the naked eye. The nestling was sitting on the edge of the nest and sat patiently for us to take pictures. Digiscoping involves shooting pictures through a spotting scope, which with my scope can magnify the picture up to 45 times more than the camera alone. Adapters are available depending on the camera and spotting scope, but Kevin and I have practiced just holding the camera up to the spotting scope and lining it up right to get a good picture. It definitely takes practice, and I need to learn how to get better focus and color. The hardest part was seeing the image in the LCD field because it was so sunny out!

Here's a picture taken with the zoom lens I have for my camera, you can see the magnification is nowhere near what we get with the spotting scope. Can you find the eagle and nest?


Seeing this Golden Eagle was a first for me! Golden Eagles always make me think of a time when a former co-worker referred to them as the "birds with hairy legs," because their legs are feathered to the toes.

Northern Cardinal on the Colorado Front Range

A rare site on the Front Range is a Northern Cardinal. On 3 of the past 4 days a single male Cardinal has visited our back yard in the Ken-Caryl neighborhood of Littleton, CO. We are just inside the “Hogback,” a ridge line just to the west of Denver. Our Red Bird was comfortable on and around our feeders with Black Headed Grosbeaks, Lesser Gold Finches, Spotted Towhees, and Black Headed Chickadees. This has been reported on the Colorado Field Ornithologist Rare Bird Alert hotline.