I found a flock of Barrow's Goldeneye along with more common waterfowl in Sands Lake in Salida, a location where that seems to have this species in the winter. Across the Arkansas River from Sands Lake was a nice size flock of Great-tailed Grackles, a species that has been resident in this mountain park lake area (7,000 foot elevation) for some years. I had nice views and got good photos of two Bald Eagles along the Arkansas River on my drive up to Salida and on my return trip some bighorn sheep climbing a steep area near the highway. I haven't had time to get these uploaded on my blog yet but will do tonight.
I have doing some owling in the past 2 weeks (and avoiding a lot of walking as I got bursitis from overdoing the walking during the Christmas Bird Count at Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park in So Texas at the beginning of January). I found a Northern Pygmy-Owl in a location in Chaffee County where I had found a pair in 2008 that were engaged in allopreening and a variety of singing. The recently found owl responded to playback and my whistled toots with repetitive tooting and some short bursts of trilling. It was located 60-80 feet up at the top of a tall conifer and with a backlit cloudy sky and snowfall, the photos I got were not great. I videotaped it as it called and have posted the clip and photos on my Birds and Nature <http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com> blog (along with some very close and sharp photos of an unusually friendly Townsend's Solitaire). I have been seeing a lot of waterfowl flocks coming through Canon City area that I believe are migrating through. Great Backyard Bird Count <http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/> this year is February 17-20. Note: I do not give out location information on owls. SeEtta Moss Canon City Blogging for Birds and Blooms magazine @ http://birdsandbloomsblog.com/category/birding/ (new link) Personal blog @ BirdsAndBlooms.blogspot.com<http://birdsandblooms.blogspot.com/> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
