A male White Winged Crossbill with meal close at hand.
Just a few weeks ago the forests we were visiting sang with the songs of White Winged Crossbills. Specialized beaks allow Crossbills to devour up to 3,000 pine seeds per day and the trails we skiied were littered with pieces of pine cone leftovers. Most of the time the birds were perched high up in the tree tops feeding, fortunately, every once in a while one came down into view.
What beautiful birds they are.
Female White Winged Crossbill.
While getting ready to go for a hike a while ago we were pleased to have the company of numerous Pinyon Jays buzzing about in the parking area collecting seeds.
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Pinyon Jays are highly social birds of the lower mountain slopes of the western United States, the Pinyon Jay is specialized for feeding on pine seeds. Each jay stores thousands of seeds each year, and has such a good memory that it can remember where most of them were hidden.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pinyon_Jay/id
Now if only I could bottle that kind of memory and take a sip every morning I might never forget where I placed my keys.
Penitente Canyon, CO.
A male Gambel’s quail letting it be know he is a very available bachelor on a nice spring morning in western Colorado.
A female Hairy Woodpecker visits an old spruce tree looking for a meal on a mid-winters afternoon.
Happy Friday and wishing you a wonderful weekend.
While not the original Horace, a pseudonym we seem to have applied to most of the Ravens we meet along the way, his slightly muddy beak and side profile sent us on a trip down memory lane to the day we first met the original.
A Black Crowned Night Heron with the reddest eye I have seen on one of these guys takes flight over Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge, Walden, CO.
Looking back as a way of looking forward.
Golden light and warmer mornings.
One fine day and one fine morning.
Enjoy your weekend.
A male Cinnamon Teal strutting his stuff on the edge of the pond and looking like a million bucks. Ladies Beware.
Photographed near Walden, CO.
I think these two Ravens might have been having a little conversation and perhaps it went like this…
Let’s get outside and enjoy the weekend before it slips away.
Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend.
As usual the Great Horned Owl chicks spotted us before we spotted them this spring afternoon a year or two ago. Tucked neatly into an old broken cottonwood tree one chick up and one tucked neatly inside with only an eye peeking through. The Owls may have paired up already and soon the eggs will be laid. New chicks are already on the way. How time flies.
nature has no boss 
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