On a walk during lunchtime in the Bear Creek Greenbelt I had good looks at three different birds.  The first two are here year-round; the last is a winter guest.

Red-tailed Hawk

Great Blue Heron

Common Goldeneye (female)

This morning I spent a few hours wandering through the Bear Creek Greenbelt.  At the far west,  near the golf course, I saw a Northern Pintail:

Northern Pintail

A couple of other birds nearby:

Great Blue Heron

Hooded Merganser

Red-winged Blackbirds are now singing:

Red-winged Blackbird

This morning I joined a bird walk at Chatfield State Park led by Joey Kellner.  One highlight was seeing a pair of Rough-legged Hawks soaring overhead:

Rough-legged Hawks

After work I braved the Bear Creek Greenbelt–it was about 12 degrees and windy.  I found the American Dipper again.  Two views:

American Dipper

American Dipper

In the late afternoon I ventured down into the Bear Creek Greenbelt.  It was overcast, in the mid 20’s, and just beginning to snow.  It was fairly quiet, but this American Dipper was energetically diving into the water, seeking a meal.

American Dipper

On a raptor-watching trip in Adams County with Chuck Aid we saw a few raptors.

Prairie Falcon

Bald Eagle (adult)

Bald Eagle (immature)

Rough-legged Hawk

Not everything we saw was a raptor.

House Finch

Rock Pigeons

On an early lunch walk with my better half and the dog, we saw a Great Blue Heron along Bear Creek:

Great Blue Heron (check out the toes on its left foot)

The Great Blues are the greenbelt’s largest year-round bird.  After work we saw a flock of Bushtits, which are the greenbelt’s smallest bird at this time of year (even in summer, they’re shorter in length than some of the hummingbirds) .  Here’s one:

Bushtit (the light eyes indicate the individual is a female)

Here’s a second Blue Great Heron:

Great Blue Heron

In the Bear Creek Greenbelt this Great Blue Heron settled in a tree after an off-leash border collie splashed into the creek, causing the heron and Canada Geese to take off in fright.

Great Blue Heron

Today I joined a Denver Field Ornithologists field trip, led by David Suddjian, to Cheyenne and Kiowa Counties.  These are sparsely populated places with little water.  This abandoned building captures the mood:

Wooden building in Cheyenne County

Yet in Cheyenne County we saw nearly three dozen Common Redpolls.  Here are some:

Common Redpolls

And in Kiowa County we saw Chihuahuan Ravens and Lapland Longspurs.  Here’s one of the latter:

Lapland Longspur

This morning we took the dog for a long walk in the Bear Creek Greenbelt.  At the pond that never freezes we saw over a hundred Canada and Cackling Geese, plus eight American Wigeons.

American Wigeons and Canada Geese

We kept heading west.  Between the two Kiplings we watched three male Hooded Mergansers put on a courtship display for two females.

Hooded Mergansers

We walked along the singletrack heading west from Kipling Parkway.  Just off the trail we spotted a Pacific Wren:

Pacific Wren

High in a tree above a Great Blue Heron surveyed Bear Creek.

Great Blue Heron

On our walk back home, along the singletrack that heads east from Kipling St., we got a better look at an American Wigeon:

American Wigeon

A Common Goldeneye was trying to take a nap and keep an eye on us:

Common Goldeneye