Collision in Kearny

My truck continues to be a magnet for accidents.  After being rear-ended in Roma several months ago, this time I will need the front worked on.  Cruising across Nebraska at 65 mph in the pre-dawn I got a one leap warning before I struck a deer head on.  It was a very solid hit that rolled the deer under the truck with sickening sounds as I ran over the top of it.  Needless to say it did not suffer.  The truck has a rather sad look to it in front but ran fine.  I am putting AAA on speed-dial when I get home.

A Dollar a Month for 16 Years

Every beautiful location needs a champion and protector.  The Colorado National Monument had John Otto who sought recognition for this area of red cliffs, monoliths, and breath-taking views.  His efforts paid off in 1911 when the  government recognized the beauty of the place and hired him as caretaker. His paycheck for the entire 16 years came to one hundred and ninety two dollars.

I stayed at the Saddlehorn Campground which is perched high on a cliff giving a breathtaking view of the city lights of Fruita at night.  Much of the park is Juniper/Pinyon habitat with its associated birds, reptiles, and plants.  The wildflowers are in full bloom with riotous displays of reds, purples, and yellows as one drives along the switchbacks.

Lazuli Bunting

Pinyon Jay

Canyon Wren

Black-throated Sparrow

Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde National Park has a rather unique place in our National Park System.  It's driving mission is to preserve the works of humans.  For over 700 years Ancestral Puebloans lived in the area, building sturdy homes of sandstone blocks and mortar which still stand.  These homes and cities built into the side of cliffs force one to comtemplate the daily life of these people.  Their lives were incredibly difficult.  They had to scale the cliff walls on a daily basis to obtain food and water.  These climbs were incredibly difficult made even tougher by having to haul animal carcasses, firewood , and vessels of water back down-even on winter days.  How did parents guard and train their children in such a dangerous place.  Today parents worry about the first solo trip in the family car for their teenager.  At what age would these Ancestral Puebloans allow their children to first scale the cliffs?  How did they treat their elderly who could not scale the cliffs?

The main road is always open but most of the side roads are gated until 8:00 AM.  Most of the park is  closed to the public.  I started out at sunrise and the road was practically deserted.  I found the museum picnic area open and photographed a Black-throated Gray Warbler and Ash-throated Flycatcher while waiting for things to open up.  By midmorning the crowds had moved in.

San Juan National Forest

The weather continues to be great with temps in the 30's early but climbing into the 70's by mid-afternoon.  After wasting some time looking for Lewis's Woodpeckers in town I headed into the San Juan National Forest north of Pagossa Springs.  This is an area that I would like to spend an entire week in but time constraints on this trip only gave me a couple hours.  A few birds were cooperative.

Grace's Warbler

Green-tailed Towhee

Steller's Jay

In the afternoon I traveled to Durango and took a detour to an area that was suppose to be reliable for Acorn Woodpeckers but it was not reliable for me.  After a fruitless search I headed for Mesa Verde National Park for the night

Feeder Birds at LaVeta

This morning was sunny and quite windy-exactly the opposite of what is needed for floral pictures.  I toured Lathrop's roads and found the birds sitting tight.  The only bird I could scrounge up was a Bushtit.  These little feathered dyanamos are small, drab, and in constant motion and seldom get any "oohs and aahs" like more colorful birds. They often look a bit disheveled as if they had used a blow dryer at too high a setting.

While checking out Colorado Birds on the web I found a posting by Beverly Jensen of LaVeta, Colorado who described the feeder activity in her back yard and invited birders to come and enjoy the spectacle.  I called her up and she graciously allowed me access to her backyard while she was at work.  Her only caveat was to not let Zeus, the friendly guard dog, slip out through the entry gate.   When I arrived Zeus eyed me from where he lay near the gate.  No matter what owners tell me about their dogs, when they are very big and named Zeus a certain level of caution is in order.  Zeus, however, was quite gentle and his only concern seemed to be finding a shady spot to nap.  The backyard activity was spectacular-a constant parade of grosbeaks, tanagers, siskins, orioles, and hummingbirds.  During one interval I saw 6 Bullock's Orioles fighting over one feeder with two Western Tanagers trying to grab a mouthful during the squabbling.  The lighting was very contrasty so I just watched the feeders until lunch.  Thanks Beverly!  Beverly has a blog (http://www.ruralchatter.blogspot.com/) that would be interesting to anybody who loves and feeds birds.

After lunch I traveled into the mountains on Highway 160 to a campsite at Pagosa Springs.  After eating I went looking for Lewis's Woodpeckers which are suppose to inhabit the cottonwoods along the riverwalk in the middle of town.  I drew a blank on the woodpeckers but admit to being distracted by the spectacular scenery of the area.  In addition kayakers were putting on a good show with a backdrop of the "Springs" complex(http://www.pagosahotsprings.com/).  Despite the cool mountain evening air guests were marching in and out of a variety of hot springs  in their look-a-like robes.  As they marched up and down steps they resembled some religious clan going about their nightly activities.

In how many cities can you kayak rough water in the middle of town?

Guests have a variety of places to soak in the hot mineral springs.

Wolf Creek Pass-This ones for you Troy!

Good Day at Lathrop State Park

Lathrop has two reservoirs with a view of the towering Spanish Peaks to the south.  The two reservoirs are surrounded by mainly Pinyon/Juniper habitat but there is also some grassland and small wetlands.  With these varied habitats the variety of birds is very good.  The day got off a little bit slow due to some fog and low cloud bank but then became a great day until  some unsettled weather arrived in the late afternoon.  I found several pairs of Yellow-breasted Chats as well as Bushtits, Juniper Titmouse, Yellow Warblers, Wilson's Warbler, and a MacGillivray Warbler which was a first for me.  I did get a picture of the MacGillivray Warbler but as if often the case with these a lot of branches get in the way.  A yellow-breasted Chat and Spotted Towhee (below) were quite cooperative.

When it became very windy I decided to drive the short 5 miles to Walsenburg (it really is nice to have a town nearby) and clean up the truck.  I left 25 pounds of Commanche National Grassland dirt on the floor of the car wash.

When the birding drops off here one can always switch to the May wildflowers.  Blue Penstemon, Claret  cup Cactus, Evening Primrose, Plains Larkspur, Prairie Lupine, and Red Globemallow are all in bloom.  If tomorrow is foggy without wind I will put away the long lens and photograph the flowers here before I leave.

Lathrop State Park

I had hoped to get some flight pictures of the Mississippi Kites this morning but woke up to a little fog and cloudy skies.  I decided to head west to Lathrop State Park which is located just past Walsenburg.  I found a campsite in the Pinon Campground and begin exploring.  Black-billed Magpies were the first birds to noisily greet me followed by Black-headed Grosbeaks and Western Tanagers.  The park seems very birdy and I hope to have  a good morning of shooting tomorrow.  This is the first campsite I have had so far with electricity and a shower (three quarters gets you six minutes) so I am living in luxury.  After three days without a shower and hardly being able to stand myself, I decided Edie was smart in not coming along this trip!

Southeast Colorado

After experiencing so much rain and bad weather on my May trip last year I had not completely decided whether or not to head out west this month.  Rain dominated the weather scene (think Nashville!) and I waited until 9:00 AM Friday (May 14) before I finally decided there was a non-threatening stretch of weather ahead.  I spent the first night in Blue Springs, Missouri and arrived in Lamar, Colorado in the early afternoon.  It was, of course, threatening rain.

Lamar is well-known for nesting Mississippi Kites at its Willow Creek Park.  The Kite is a striking bird of prey which is perfectly happy catching cicadas and other large insects in mid air with their talons and devouring them while flying.  I had visualized a quiet small town park where I could set up and take pictures undisturbed.  Instead I walked into "Lamar Days Rod Run" which was a classic car show/carnival/dance exhibition/motorcycle show/ arts and crafts/grilling contest.  They had all their bases covered.  I heard the music from two blocks away and knew things would probably not work out according to my preconceived plans.

Sign at Willow Creek Park, Lamar Colorado

I found a parking spot three blocks away and went kite hunting.  I managed to find two individuals.  They were perched high behind vegetation against a gray sky-not very photogenic.  I first imagined they were huddled shell-shocked against the blaring music, crowd noise and carnival rides but more likely hunting was tough in the cold windy weather.  I decided to see if conditions would improve, and if not, to come back early in the morning.

Meanwhile, to make the best of things I checked out the classic cars and since I was rather hungry decided to conduct my own evaluation of the grillers.  My first try was "Grillers in the Mist" and I thought I had an instant winner but to be fair I tried the ribs of "Skin & Bones " from Arcadia, Florida and reluctantly awarded them first place.  I might have been biased by all the awards and trophies they displayed, or maybe I just liked the huge parrot they had in front entertaining the customers.

Despite a rough looking sky at night the next morning was beautiful.  I arrived at the park before sunrise and didn't see anybody for almost two hours.  The kites seemed a little sleepy at first as I began to relocate them.  Around 8 o'clock they began to get more active.  The pair below were definitely getting quite cozy.

Around ten I decided to make a long trip to Carrizo Canyon and Cottonwood Canyon near the Oklaoma and New Mexico border From hind sight this was a bad decision.   The roads are dirt and earlier rains had turned them slimy in places.  With relatively large distances and reduced speed, time for photography became limited.  I contemplated camping out of sight somewhere so that I could shoot in the morning but then remembered I hadn't told anybody where I would be and there was no cell phone or internet connection in case of a breakdown.  For anybody comtemplating birding this area make sure you carry good maps and a gps.  Despite these problems the canyons are beautiful and worth the trouble even if the grasslands you cover to get there can be quite monotonous. 

Carrizo Canyon

Shawnee State Forest, Ohio

I made a short trip down to the Kentucky-Ohio border to photograph some southern woodland species at the Shawnee State Forest.  This area is sometimes referred to as Ohio's "Little Smokies".  In April of 2009 a portion of the forest burned and was presently being logged.  This disturbed area produced good shooting for Prairie Warblers.

There were a number of Yellow-breasted Chats in the same area but they were not very cooperative.  Rufous-sided Towhees, however, were everywhere.

In the undisturbed parts of the forest Hooded Warblers and Worm-eating Warblers posed for the camera but Yellow-throated  and Cerulean Warblers were tough to coax down out of the canopy.

Dauphin Island, Alabama

Dauphin Island is a barrier island just off the coast of Alabama.  Like many barrier islands it is a fragile ecosystem in a precarious location prone to hurricane damage.  The last hurricane to hit the island was Katrina in August of 2005.  The low lying western end of the island was "rolled over" as sand from the Gulf side swept over the island to the opposite side-in essence moving the island closer to shore.  Most of the ocean front row houses were destroyed.
Despite the damage, every April, these islands are the first land that migrating birds see in their long flight across the Gulf.  If storms or strong headwinds have tired the migrants they "fallout" of the sky in vast numbers to rest and feed in these "migrant traps".  Birders are not far behind and Dauphin is known as one of the best places to be during the spring migration.  Stormy weather is good for birders-bad for the birds. 
Our visit during the first half of April started slow but true to form the first rainy morning produced a good number of birds.  There are a number of good birding locations on the island but Shell Mounds seem to be where everybody eventually ends up. 
I started at the small airport marsh where the Clapper Rails run back and forth like long-beaked chickens.

Along the beaches a number of new Osprey towers have been erected and when the birding was slow the Osprey put on a good show as they set up house-keeping activities:

The hurricane-renovated western end of the island will soon have a new pay beach area which will include a small protected area.  This opens up a good area for shorebirds, gulls, and terns.

On the culinary side there was a good new-bad news situation.  The good news was the first annual Gumbo Cookoff was a great success.  It was suppose to run for three hours at the country club but the crowds were so great that they were beginning to run out in half that time and had to refund tickets to late-arrivals.  I wasn't taking any chances, however, and got there early enough to run through all the booths before they ran out-it was kind of an endurance contest as Edie tried to keep up with me but to no avail.  The bad news was that Mary's Place in nearby Coden was shuttered and closed.  This restaurant, thought to be the oldest in Alabama, opened in 1935 and was known for great food.