Red-headed Woodpecker - Marjorie Perry NP (Arapahoe Co.)

[Jared Del Rosso]

This morning, while walking my dog at Marjorie Perry Nature Preserve, I had a brief encounter with a Red-headed Woodpecker. The bird, which was high in a tree along the High Line Canal on the eastern side of the preserve, didn't seem to want to stick around,  flying into the surrounding community after I snapped some photos. 

Also at the preserve was an early MacGillvray's Warbler and the first Turkey Vulture I've seen in west Arapahoe Co since early-April. During an earlier visit this morning, without the dog, I spotted a female Lazuli Bunting. I thought I heard a catbird, but never saw it and could have been fooled by the various sounds that the dozens of Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbirds, and starling make. As I was leaving the preserve during that first visit, an Osprey flew over. I didn't see it during my second visit, but I've read that they're sometimes found at the Preserve. Several singing Yellow Warbler were around too, my first of the season.

Between the trips to the preserve, I spotted two Brewer's Sparrow and an Orange-crowned Warbler in my yard in west Centennial.

Poor photos of the woodpecker and the MacGillvray's are on my eBird checklist. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO