Who's That?

Connie wanted to go camping so we headed up the upper Arkansas. We go every year and try for our fav spot along the river. We were lucky this year - got it! Great spot. I think we got it this year cause the river was really running high - ROARING! Almost too loud. Runoff is happening really fast. Usually by this time of the summer the river rats have over-run all the good BLM spots along the river. It was really nice not having screaming rafters floating by every ten seconds, and buses careening down the road in clouds of dust. As far I'm concerned, the rafting industry turns my fav river into an amusement park most the summer. I say if you want to scream and yell and seek thrills, go to Elitch's. Leave the river to more peaceful use.



Wasn't real birdy. For one thing you could barely hear any bird song next to the river. I did hear a Yellow Warbler and found it going into the same bush over and over. Building a neat little nest right over the roaring water. The pair basically built it in a day. When I discovered it in the afternoon of our first day, it was just a wisp of very fine grass. We went for a bike ride into Buena Vista for our traditional corn dog at K's Dairy Delite, and in the four hours we were gone, they basically had it completed. By the next morning it was really looking finished. I sat real still maybe 15 feet away and shot a few frames with my 300+1.4f teleconverter on a monopod and hoped for the best. The female came in about every five to ten minutes with a few strands of grass and such. She didn't spend long working and was off again. A couple of times she would sit down on it and squirm around, like, "ohh, this is feeling about right."

While in town eating our corn dog lunch in the park, I noticed what I thought was a Robin sitting oddly on a telephone pole. Breast looked robin like red, but it looked more like a Woodpecker. Sure enough it was a male Lewis's. That wasn't robin red, it was pink! I've never gotten a great look at a Lewis's. Here this guy was living in the park. The next morning we broke camp and while I stalked the Lewis's, Connie read in the park. I found his hole. He'd go in for a quite awhile, then pop out with woodchips on his face. Once I made a drumming like noise, and he popped right out look like, "who is that out there"? Very handsome bird. Never did see a female. Don't know if she was on the nest, or he was just building a spec hole.

There was another curious song I've never heard way up in the Cottonwoods. Only saw a flash of it. Maybe a Vireo, I just couldn't tell. Small, greenish yellow. Very flitty.