Birds are Back! (they never left)
Hey folks,
Joe here. I took a break from joesbirds.com, but not a break from birds. I've decided to post monthly in this format with all of the birds I've seen in a month and maybe some thoughts. If you look at posts prior to this one you'll notice there are just photos (and captions). That was fun and I enjoyed writing the captions, but I wanted to be able to post about types of birds I've already posted about before so I'm trying this instead.
Shoutout to my dev Frank for the updates the the website. I hope you enjoy the new format. Allow me to catch you up on a year+ of birding. From here on out I hope to post with more regularity.
Most of the birds I saw in the park and in my backyard are fairly common, but even though I saw them often it can be hard to get decent photos. Getting a photo of a Mississippi Kite was tough because I never seemed to have my camera on me when I saw them. Here's a photo I did manage to get along with several others from the park or my backyard.
The park is also home to several large birds of prey. I was fortunate enough to spot this owl's nest in the spring.
About a month later, I saw two owlets in the nest.
My last official sighting of the owlets wasn't captured in photos. They were too far away, but they had fully fledged and were practicing flying while one of their parents observed. It was neat.
Speaking of baby birds, this robin built a nest in the tree lawn right outside my house. She had three babies.
In February I went to Arizona. There were several noteworthy species. It was too early for migration, but the desert still has cool birds.
In May of this year I went to Rocky Mountain National Park and got to see a Steller's Jay for the first time. I also saw a Clark's Nutcracker. Generally speaking, I think apostrophes in bird names are dumb, but maybe I'm just jealous because you can't put one in a URL. Would I prefer joe'sbirds.com? Yes, but that's not an option.
Anyway. Here are some of the birds I saw in Colorado.
Without question the most photogenic bird award for this year (an award I just made up that is very prestegious) goes to the Red-Tailed Hawks on the west side of the park. Big, imposing, and frequently seen hunting; they were a staple of my walks in the spring and because they're most active in the morning and at dusk the photos turned out great.
I'm not really sure how to end a post that covers an entire year. So here's a list of bird awards.
Bird Awards
Most Photogenic Bird Award: Red-Tailed Hawk
Best Bird Award: a tie between all of them
Thanks for reading.
Joe