The "Pink Sided" sub-species of Dark-eyed Junco. I believe this was en route to Colorado Springs from the Gunnison. We had a nice little snow storm and Melissa was freaking out going down the mountain passes.
A check of eBird at a breakfast stop and I found a place on the way that seemed to have tons of Scaled Quail reports. Once there it took about 2 minutes to find them.
OOOOOoooo a fight! It ended relatively bloodless. I asked for my money back.
What a stud!
Black-billed Magpie - Colorado Springs is gorgeous. This was Red Rocks Park or Garden of the Gods, not sure which.
Western Red-tails look different.
Spotted Towhee
Townsend's Solitaire.
My nephew giving the "what now?" face.
I watched this hole for 4 hours waiting for something primeval to come out. It never did, but I bet something gnarly lives in there.
Luke in a hole.
George in a hole.
Hmm....
I am too lazy to properly ID this so I am just going to call it a Desert Cottontail.
I wish these were not Rock Doves, but sitting in front of the moon like that I could not resist.
Western Bluebird
Bushtits are the cutest birds ever.
We headed to the Paint Mines Interpretive Park with my sister in-law's family on the 28th and I was excited because it just happened to have some recent Northern Shrike reports.
The only shrikes I could get to cooperate were Loggerhead. I saw a Northern in the distance but it somehow disappeared before I could get close enough for a pic. Dangit, might be my nemesis bird.
It turns out this evil bunny was eating the Northern Shrike. Note the bloody mouth. Seriously though, what is going on here? Are Jack Rabbits carnivorous?
Sage Thrasher
My sister in-law Ali coming out of her cave.
Jack the Rabbit
Thirteen Lined Squirrel
I almost thought this was a Swainson's Hawk.
Then it did this and I saw the dreaded petagial bars.
Wow, at least his tail is in focus. Horned Lark.
In the afternoon the kids wanted to chill at the house and play with their cousins so I sneaked out for an hour drive to Pueblo to chase a real rarity.
Yellow-billed Loon!!! Usually only see in Alaska.
Hanging out with a Common Loon.
American Pipit
Ever hear a Yellow-billed Loon roar? It's a life changing experience. Sounds like a Lion.
Any Raven experts out there? The tail had a little divot which I thought was a field mark for Chihuahuan Raven, but I can't be sure.
Nasal bristles were pretty far down the bill, although hard to see here.
Say's Phoebe
White-crowned Sparrow doing a Golden-crowned Sparrow impression.
Canyon Towhee
Great times! Still a couple days worth of Colorado but will save for another post.
The rock dove photo is a classic!
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