Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Birding Today

Went to Fountain Creek Regional Park with Kathy and Nina.

A few new ones for me:

white-crowned sparrow:


The females and juveniles are more brown, less white.  I think I saw one last time that was female but didn't know what it was.

virginia rail:



sharp-shinned hawk


The banding on the tail is pretty distinctive.  

bufflehead


gadwall


I might have seen these at Prospect Lake a week or so ago but wasn't sure.

common merganser


These definitely weren't here last time.  The geese had moved on and there were interesting ducks everywhere.

belted kingfisher


Very beautiful; heard its call, too.

A few of these I've seen before but wasn't officially tracking yet or didn't know what it was.  The mallards were out in force and were beautiful and sounded just like Daffy Duck.

6 comments:

Carol said...

How fun!!! I wouldn't know most of those birds, so I'm missing out on a lot. The belted kingfisher is so cute! I'll have to google to find out what his call sounds like.

otowi said...

It is fun, and I'm learning a lot. Maybe when it warms up we can get together to look at birds or hike - spring break maybe?

Carol said...

I would like that. When is your spring break?

Pink Muslimah said...

assalamu `alaykum wa rahmatullah
What is the vegetation that the rail is standing on? Is the white stuff on it snow or part of the plant itself?

otowi said...

Carol: March 26-30 is Spring Break for me.

wa alaaykum salaam pink: I didn't take the rail picture, but the vegetation is stuff like cattails and reeds in water - it is a bird that lives on banks and stuff. That isn't snow, but where we were, yes, there was plenty of snow still.

Carol said...

That's a good time for me. Let's stay in touch.