Cool Birds in Cool Places!

I've been trying to get in some last minute visits to places I wanted to explore more...Mom has already moved back to sis's house in town, so I have a few days to myself before heading back to SC,,,

Saturday it was the Buford-New Castle Road in the White River National Forest aka West Elk.   It was ATV day as most Saturdays are in National Forest Lands,

but I found a quiet road and was able to seek out a few interesting things...Once  you climb the forest service road you arrive what is called the Old Gravel Pit...

Once I got past the locals, I stayed off the OHV trail and skirted the open area following the trees on the left.  Phished up a few Mountain Chickadees, 

  This little fellow came out to see what all the ruckus was about..

Alvin the chipmunk!

Lots of pretty vistas

the forest was glittering with awesome light as the smoke was chased out by rain and some wind too...

here is the spot I found to park on the quiet road...

It turned out to be a good patch busy with lots of Yellow Rumped Warblers, 

Mountain Chickadees, Juniper Titmouse, and Red Breasted Nuthatch added more activity to the patch...

I think lots of new insects are out and about cause these guys were feeding like crazy!  Another

Red-Naped Sapsucker was working on a tree trunk he didn't seem to even care that I was creeping around..

red naped sapsucker

hairy woodpecker

Also had a Hairy Woodpecker show up and a few Blue Grey Gnatcatchers...and a cool bird new to me was this taxa of the Dark Eyed Junco the Grey Headed Dark Eyed Junco.  He is very similar to the Red-Backed, he has the red back...but he has the solid color beak...and a very cute one at that..

Grey Headed Dark Eyed Junco

A first for me, not a lifer tho since it's still considered a Dark Eyed Junco...I was just as excited no matter!

A Golden Eagle soared overhead...

On the way back home I was checking out fields for birds because there is always birds around especially when cutting is being done that stirs up bugs and tosses up seed so it's a good smorgasbord. 

Many of the irrigation ditches have cattails and that means Red-winged Blackbirds..but I found what I think is the Bicolored form...they have an orange patch without any yellow or white...

...and what looks to be a bicolored female is on the lower mid right with the brown head.  There was a couple Immature yellow headed blackbirds in this mix too. 

Back at home the rancher in the valley was chasing his cows that broke through the fence and were on the neighbors field...

Great entertainment for me as I sat on the deck  with a refreshing drink overlooking his dilemma.

teehee...he ended up calling for backup and 3 of them finally got the cows back on the right side...

Next day, Sunday  I hit up Lion Park in the I-70 Rest area...was up early so caught the sunrise first..

out with the dogs on their morning break 

Casey 

and the moon was still around on the west side of the tree...

it's a waning 3/4 moon 

My buddy the squirrel was up bright and early that day...

I hit the walkway by the Colorado River checking for birds have more luck there than at the lake.  

A very busy Grey Catbird came out 

The Silver Bush has berries, and although I didn't see the birds eating the berries they were eating the bugs that are attracted to these willowy bushes.  

Got a cute Brewer's Sparrow...

And Cedar Waxwings and Lesser Goldfinch were all over the place as well as Song Sparrows..

the Song Sparrows here are much bigger than the ones I'm used to seeing back home these look very muscular....while the SC version is like a little powder puff...

And this one stole the show cause it's rare as far as ebird is concerned...and it was a lifer for me, the

Black Phoebe

Completely adorable!! 

a couple Osprey flew over I caught one in action...

this could be the mother from the nest I watched when I first arrived here...

On the way back up the hill to this house saw a pair of

American Kestrels...the female in red and male in blue!

Then today I went north up to Meeker.  (via hwy 13) I had a hunch...

That's up next!! 

In real time I am packed and heading out in the morning...it's a sad day I don't want to go...but I'm trying to stick to the plan, I'm already 7 days later leaving than my original plan...One thing I have learned in my lifetime is nothing stays the same. There is so much left to see here and now most of my family is here...sigh. BUT I know we will be together again in the near future! 

Goodnight all 

PEACE

Every day is a new Adventure.

Yellow Jacket Pass

I made the trip back to my sisters house with no more engine issues! Made me crazy that I ended up 4 days earlier than my planned arrival back to her house but At the time it seemed like the best plan...the drive back was awesome as I went right the way across Utah on I-70!  IT pained me to bypass Capitol Reef as I had planned it for my finale....but it ain't going no where :o)  On my past 2 visits out west I've visited  Arches, Canyonlands, Bryce, and Zion.  I still have manyyy Utah dreams to fill...an entire year would NOT give one the time needed...this trip I added Dinosaur and Antelope Island to my "visited" list. The  opportunities are endless as with each and every state!

Roadside awesomeness!

So back in CO a few days later we took a ride up to Meeker. 

Hwy 13 takes one there out of Rifle so up we went. Along the way is the Rifle Arch.  There is a trail to view it up close we didn't  hike as we had a full day planned we got a good view roadside..

 My sis and I both have a hobby of photographing graves for the website Find A Grave.  I haven't been doing much since gas prices shot up but now they are back in affordable range so my sis had some grave photo requests for the Meeker cemetery.  

We found only one of the graves sometimes there is no headstone...even tho the interred was listed in plots..  So we bundled the cemetery trip with a picnic and with a plan for some off roading!  (senior citizen style) We picnicked at the County Park in Meeker right by the Rio Blanco River.  The fall color was brilliant!

This shot was taken just upriver from the park, the park has a small RV park with electric and a dumpsite! Its small  maybe 3 or 4 sites I read on the Bayfield Bunch's blog they camped there just the other day...what a small world it is! ....I liked this mural in town...

--->missin photo

So we headed north on 13 and took the Yellow Jacket Pass.  It's a well graded gravel road that connects Meeker to Craig, and its about 42 miles end to end...we drove about half of it to the Milk Creek Battlefield site...it was such a beautiful drive! Here's some of what we enjoyed!...

windshield view

Most all the Aspens leaves had already peaked and fallen off but the oaks & such were very nice surrounding the sandstone formations!

We saw at least one McMansion along the way...

Yellow Jacket Pass. Road leads to the Battle of Milk Creek Memorial. General Nathan Meeker upset the Utes by trying to force them to become farmers. In September 1879, Meeker called in the army and on September 29, 1879, Chief Douglas and a group of warriors killed Meeker and seven other members of the agency. 

A dark storm cloud rolled in so we turned around rather than go on even in a 4 wheel drive we had no plans to go sliding on slick mud...so we reversed our route here...you don't need a 4 wheel drive to do this pass but my sister's Jeep is the vehicle we took that day..

the western blue birds found us interesting and used the fence posts to give  us the stink eye..

on the way back I noticed this old cabin, I thought it was just as beautiful as the McMansion...

and this one reminds me of an old bunkhouse....

and another Arch we don't know the name of this one...it's roadside on Hwy 13..

you really can't beat Colorado for natural beauty!!

and just in case you wondered who did the driving...it was our chauffeur 

JIMMY!

Teehee!  

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.