After two full days of amazing skiing, here in Colorado, we had yet to sustain permanent injury, so we declared victory and took it easy today. That meant that I had a lot more time for picture taking this morning, and here are the results.
Black-billed magpies (Pica hudsonia) seem to be everywhere out here, but they are pretty shy, similar to the blue jays and American crows in Estabrook Park, so not the easiest to capture on film. This one, however, seemed hesitant to flee, as if it wasn’t quite warmed up yet from the cold temps overnight, and so it allowed this picture. If you look to the right of the tree trunk, you can see the rest of its very long tail.
If I had to guess, I’d guess that nine out of ten of the large black birds I saw here were American crows, and the tenth bird was a common raven. We’ve seen them before, most recently in the Grand Canyon, and here’s one from this morning just as it made its distinctive croak.
On the smaller side, here’s a mountain chickadee, which we also saw before in the Grand Canyon.
After breakfast, we headed back down the mountain to my sister’s place on the outskirts of Golden, and there I found a shy Steller’s jay with a crest, unlike the uncrested one we saw in Guatemala last month.
Finally, we took a walk into town, and on the way, I found my very first eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), which I read “is the largest species of tree squirrel native to North America.“
Lastly, I fly home tomorrow, but not in time for our weekly wildlife walk. Instead, John Kasper has offered to lead the group again, so come on out to see who has arrived while I’ve been away.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 