Yesterday we took a trip down into Buena Vista, where the weather was a lot warmer and there were different birds! We saw a Yellow Warbler, my first in a while, and a yellow form of a Pine Siskin, along with a Wyoming Ground Squirrel. Before that, however, we saw a Ruby-crowned Kinglet in our driveway. I managed to get a photo that shows the kinglet’s crest, rarely visible. On our way back from Buena Vista, we got quite a surprise. On the road in front of us was a Black Bear! It turned and ran, so I couldn’t get any direct photos of it, but Cedar found some fresh tracks that I got shots of. Two of the photos have my hand in them for comparison. Here they are!
This is a zoomed-in image of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet that was in our yard. You can see the brilliant scarlet crest that offsets the rest of this drab brown bird.
I have already posted photos of Pine Siskins, but in Buena Vista, I found a yellow morph Pine Siskin, meaning one that has more yellow than others.
Along the Arkansas in Buena Vista we saw this Yellow Warbler. They are one of the few western warblers, and it was a nice surprise treat.
In this photo you can see some of the rufous underbelly streaking and the uniform yellow tone to the bird.
Also in Buena Vista we spotted this Wyoming Ground Squirrel, which is rather like a mountain prarie dog.
The ground squirrel posed nicely for us, and we were able to identify it easily.
This is a track left by the hind paw of a black bear, because it is very big and oval shaped, not round.
My hand can easily fit inside the track, showing that it was a very big bear!
Some estimates say that the bear was almost 300 pounds!
