Yesterday I saw a total of 9 sapsuckers in Canon City--the male Red-naped, 2 male and 6 female Williamson's Sapsuckers. This included spotting a female Williamson's on a pine tree in a totally new location plus finding another female at a location where I hadn't seen any sapsuckers for several weeks.
Two days ago after not finding any Rufous-crowned Sparrows at the bottom area at Tunnel Drive, I hiked the trail to just past it's end where one lightly marked Rufous-crowned Sparrow popped up in some rhus trilobata (skunkbush), apparently curious about what had invaded it's solitude. I saw only 2 Canyon Towheeds which is a low number for this area and surprisingly none near the Rufous-crowned (I usually see them in association). The habitat along the trail is not in good condition, likely a result of the drought that lasted until mid-January. This may account for the apparent paucity of Rufous-crowned Sparrows this year. I was suprised that I did not spot any American Dippers in the Arkansas River that is a few hundred yards below the trail as in past winters I have see up to 5 dippers when I have walked the entire trail. That shouldn't have any relationship to the drought conditions since much of the water running in the Arkansas River (as well as in the So Platte) is non-native water imported from streams on the west slope. There were both Common Goldeneye , Common Mergansers and Mallards in the river that were easily viewable from the trail. Today I found a Curve-billed Thrasher on my friend's property east of Canon City. It behaved unusually in not only covering it's eyes with it's nictitating membrane but also closing it's eyelid, unusual not only because it was daytime but with me not far away. Though I have often seen diurnal birds with a nictitating membrane covering their eyes I have rarely seen them with their eyelids closed in the daytime (the only ones I recall are finches that were sick). I have uploaded photos of the thrasher, as well as some nice photos I got of some Rocky Mtn bighorn sheep recently, onto my BirdsAndNature <http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com> blog. I will be adding some photos of the 6-8 foot thick ice that was on the Arkansas River west of Canon City. SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.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.
