This morning's walk west down Red Rock road from the RedRock RV Park was done with my eye on the birds that live around here. (As opposed to the wildflowers as I have done for the last few days.) There is a barbed wire fence courtesy of the Meadow Vue ranch next door that follows the road. Every morning, and this was no exception, little birds sit there and jump ahead as Reggie and I approach. Today I brought along my heavy "big bertha" a Canon 500mm lens (with 1.4x extension on a 1.6x sensor camera). I was ready for them.

It was a beautiful morning again with bright sunshine, temps around 43F and a bright blue sky. The Centennial Mountains continue to lose snow given that we haven't had a good storm here in a week, but they were still beautiful as always.

The birds often are small and brown and disappear into the background, so you have to keep a good eye on the fence. Plus, for me, Reggie walks quite a bit ahead of me and often keeps them moving down the fence well ahead of me. When I see a bird, I call Reggie (my Golden Retreiver, to come back to me.

The first bird we encountered was about the most common one around here, the American Robin. Normally he is hopping around looking for worms and insects in the RV park, but I guess he was on a break sitting on the fence post, because he seemed to be very relaxed as I approached closely and pointed big bertha at him.

Next, a slight movement alerted me to another bird not far away. He was a little larger than a sparrow and appeared to have a black head. I confirmed this by looking into my view finder. I had to walk a bit until he settled down to take this picture. This is an Eastern Kingbird, part of the flycatcher family. He feasts on the numerous insects at the Ranch. He is quite attractive with his black head and white breast. He followed us down the road (at least 50 feet ahead) the entire way.

Next I saw what appears to be a Sage sparrow. There are numerous birds that flit about in the sagebrush around here and I presume that he is one of them. Very common looking as many sparrows are to the uninitiated eye, but nevertheless, the is one of the fence birds around here. The next one appears to be an adult Vesper sparrow which was quite a bit larger than the Sage sparrow.






Probably one of the most beautiful of the "fence birds" is the Mountain bluebird. The male is bright blue and bright sunlight enhances his brillance. The female is not as bright but still has touches of blue. I was hoping to find one of the male bluebirds, but first encountered this female. She was accomodating to my photography, but couldn't help me find the male. They don't always fly together. I assume they find more food when they split up? I later found the male further down the road and he was ready to pose for me. I must have taken 40 images of him in 10 minutes. He was proud to show off his brilliant blue plumage to me. When he jumped to a post covered in red and orange lichen I was thrilled to take his photo with such bright contrasting colors to his plumage.


A pleasant surprise was meeting the Chipping Sparrow. His bright rufous head made this sparrow delightful to behold. Again, sitting on the barbed wire seemed to satisfy him for quite a while as I took his picture.

A walk down the road wouldn't be complete without seeing the paired Tree Swallows swooping down to find insects for breakfast. Eventually they need to rest and settle down on the wire. They are brilliant in the right sun angle.


Although not technically a "fence" bird in my definition, I couldn't resist taking in the beautiful Yellow-headed Blackbird waiting his turn at a feeder in the RV Park. Along with him, on the ground, under the feeder was the brown-headed cowbird, often mistaken for a blackbird. In the sun his true colors are shown to advantage.

Come see us at RedRock RV Park and make your own early morning journey.