Backyard birds in a season of fledglings - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

I haven't been out birding in a week and a half or so. (Something about fostering puppies, as my partner and I are, keeps me tethered to the house.) 

But the backyard birds here in Centennial haven't disappointed. Nor have the shopping centers and the modest trails where I rush through morning walks.

In my backyard, fledgling robins and towhees abound. I saw a young robin working through a local plum-family landscaping tree in a neighbor's yard. (No idea on species or hybrid status of tree; dark leaves, small dark fruit, upright growing habit.) In my yard, one was investigating a chokecherry. The foster puppy was especially enthralled by the robins flying low over the yard. Two young towhees are also flying around the yard. They're streaky and duller than adults, but independent seeming otherwise. I think the adults are nesting again, too.

This morning, an adult House Wren was going in and out of a closed yard umbrella -- which was a treat to watch. The adult wren was also going up and down the fabric of the umbrella, not unlike a Canyon Wren, though the umbrella is less sturdy a surface than a rock wall. A nearby wren was begging, but I couldn't tell through my office window if this small brown bird was a young bird or a mate.

A flock of upwards of 20 Bushtits came through a day or so ago. The size of the flock caught me off guard. I'm used to seeing dozens in winter, but not this time of year. 

Flickers and the weird calls of young flickers have been around today. An even weirder call was an apparent juvenile Raven, at the increasingly deserted Streets of Southglenn, who was giving a child-like cry and holler. So close to a human cry it was that I actually looked around for the young people making it...

Also around the yard: Black-capped Chickadees, White- and Red- breasted Nuthatches, and an American Goldfinch. I sometimes hear Chipping Sparrows singing, and I'm seeing small flocks of them around Centennial. The song of Western Flycatchers seems everywhere along the Little Dry Creek, Big Dry Creek, and High Line Canal Trail. 

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

lonesomewhippoorwill.com

[Jared Del Rosso]

I stepped out into my Centennial yard after posting this...to a trio of ravens (perhaps young birds) on the transmission towers a street or two away, a male intergrade female courting a female on a telephone pole in my yard, and a White-breasted Nuthatch uncovering something in a honey locust tree. Whatever it was, it was white. From my vantage, I couldn't tell if these were cached seeds or some sort of larva.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

lonesomewhippoorwill.com