Today was Monday but I had the day off of work. I decided to get a walk in fairly early and arrived just before 8:30am. One of the first things I noticed were the calls of Red-winged Blackbirds. It struck me that it's been a while since I've heard so many of them -and being this late in the year it seems likely that these were birds who had been further north and were just moving through the area headed back south.
In one of the small sloughs on the east side, you can now walk along the water for a bit due to recent construction going on in the park. Rock has been added around some of the drainage openings which should prevent erosion and also help filter water. Here I spotted and Eastern Phoebe, recognizable by it's pattern of returning to the same branch after repeatedly flying out to catch insects. A short time later on the edge of the ball fields I could see 4 or 5 birds that I easily recognized, although don't seem to common at Palmer Lake.
I recently learned that the European Starling was introduced to the US in the late 1800's by a group of Shakespeare enthusiasts who wanted to introduce all birds mentioned in his plays. All European or "Common" Starlings you see today would be descendants of 100 Starlings introduced to Central Park in New York!
Read more here. Near the end of my walk I had an opportunity to see another common bird that has been elusive to my camera lens -a Dark-eyed Junco.
They typically will keep moving forward as I approach, just far away enough to make them hard to photograph. It was a bit unusual to find myself right underneath this one.
In one of the small sloughs on the east side, you can now walk along the water for a bit due to recent construction going on in the park. Rock has been added around some of the drainage openings which should prevent erosion and also help filter water. Here I spotted and Eastern Phoebe, recognizable by it's pattern of returning to the same branch after repeatedly flying out to catch insects. A short time later on the edge of the ball fields I could see 4 or 5 birds that I easily recognized, although don't seem to common at Palmer Lake. 
I recently learned that the European Starling was introduced to the US in the late 1800's by a group of Shakespeare enthusiasts who wanted to introduce all birds mentioned in his plays. All European or "Common" Starlings you see today would be descendants of 100 Starlings introduced to Central Park in New York! Read more here. Near the end of my walk I had an opportunity to see another common bird that has been elusive to my camera lens -a Dark-eyed Junco. 
They typically will keep moving forward as I approach, just far away enough to make them hard to photograph. It was a bit unusual to find myself right underneath this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment