[Douglbirds] Prairie Warblers & our backyard

[Lisa Crispin]

I had no idea so many different birds existed in our area!

I'm having trouble identifying a bird that comes to our seed tray. It looks
like a longer, skinnier robin, it has a reddish breast, and is gray on the
back. It has a different beak than a robin. I can't find it in my Colorado
bird book. What might it be? (I know that isn't a very good description, I
can see it in my mind's eye but I'm no birder).
thanks,
Lisa

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 11:40 AM, ouzels8 <ouzels8 at aol.com> wrote:

>  We spent Tuesday working in three Atlas blocks in central Elbert County
> with Doug Kibbe & Mackenzie Goldthwait, so we didn't trek up the trail to
> look for the Prairie Warbler. (I'm going to work on a message about atlasing
> results from Elbert, but that'll take a while.)
>
> Besides, we have Prairie Warbler on our Yard List! One worked its way
> through the scrub oak and mountain mahogany above the house, singing
> vigorously, on May 29, 2001.
>
> This year's yard list has some new entries -- two nests. Since we had to
> take down all our bird feeders because they hold such interest to the pair
> of local bears, the traffic in the yard has diminished quite a bit: no more
> chickadees, jays, goldfinches, and the like. But the relative calm has led
> (maybe) to a pair of Cordilleran Flycatchers, now building a nest on a light
> fixture. Of course, it's right outside the door we use the most, and if on
> the nest, the bird flushes whenever we go near. I don't think the action of
> the dog door near it bothers the bird as much as we do. They haven't
> finished building the nest yet; we hope we don't upset them too much.
>
> On the other side of the house, 10 days ago, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers had a
> fit over some invisible threat. They scurried around fussing, and eventually
> one with a stick and one with a spruce needle in their respective bills.
> Finally, two days ago, I detected the nest, 8-10 feet up in the crotch of a
> scrub oak branch. With a mirror on a pole, Urling and I looked at it this
> morning; nothing in it so far, but the gnatcatchers continue to squeak from
> that oak and some other nearby ones.
>
> In the gully below the house a Red-eyed Vireo seems to have set up a
> territory. He tried our yard for a few minutes, two or three different days,
> but then settled down in the big old cottonwoods. That's a new bird for our
> yard, Number 134, I think.
>
> Hugh Kingery
> Franktown, CO
>
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>


-- 
Lisa Crispin
Co-author with Janet Gregory, Agile Testing
http://www.agiletester.ca
http://lisa.crispin.home.att.net
http://lisacrispin.blogspot.com
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