Muskrats are plentiful in the Bear Creek Greenbelt:

Muskrat

This morning at Waterton Canyon:

Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay

Canyon Wren

Canyon Wren (sassy edition)

American Dipper

On November 6, we got about ten inches of snow, and then a couple more inches on November 8.  The raptors looked a little bedraggled this morning:

Young Cooper’s Hawk

Young Red-tailed Hawk

A dapper Hooded Merganser:

Hooded Merganser

An American Dipper, our only songbird utterly at ease in the water.

American Dipper

And this bird, an Eastern specialty, was a complete surprise to see:

White-eyed Vireo

In the Bear Creek Greenbelt this morning:

American Dipper

Great Horned Owl

Great Blue Heron

And the Sharp-shinned Hawk paid another visit to my backyard:

Sharp-shinnedd Hawk (note the dark hood, as opposed to the cap on a Cooper’s Hawk)

A time of transition in the Bear Creek Greenbelt.  Double-crested Cormorants are heading down to warmer climates in the south.  And American Wigeons are arriving from colder climates up north.

Double-crested Cormorant

American Wigeon

Red-winged Blackbirds have returned in numbers to the Bear Creek Greenbelt:

Red-winged Blackbird

This morning in the Bear Creek Greenbelt, a young Red-tailed Hawk was perched over Bear Creek:

Red-tailed Hawk

Not a single muskrat was around.  After the hawk flew off, a mink showed up:

Mink

The same Sharp-shinned Hawk paying another visit to my backyard:

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Today in the Bear Creek Greenbelt:

Mink

Here’s a Sharp-shinned Hawk that emptied my backyard of songbirds:

Sharp-shinned Hawk

For comparison, a Cooper’s Hawk I saw in the Bear Creek Greenbelt yesterday:

Cooper’s Hawk