Townsend's Solitaire

This was a second sighting for me but the first time I captured it on camera. Both times I've seen this fella, it was quick. Luckily, I was photographing the Robins (previous post) and he happened to stop by the tree for a very quick nibble and I captured this photo. It shows just enough to ID him!

American Robin in Winter

I absolutely adore Robins and always get a little sad when they stop hanging out on urban lawns at summer's end. That's why I was especially thrilled to see a whole flock of them having the best time feasting on these berries in my neighbor's tree in December! It was snowing and only 7 degrees F but I had the best time photographing them. I took tons of photos but narrowed it down to my favorites!

Black-headed Grosbeak!

I had this beauty show up in my yard for 2 days only around August 7th! An exciting first-sighting for me!
OK, don't laugh but when I first saw him, I thought it was a Baltimore Oriole (which would be very rare in Colorado) and I immediately set out some orange halves. I couldn't figure out why he wasn't the least bit interested in them. I brought the photo to my local bird store and the nice lady set me straight, lol!
I learned something though....House Finches like oranges! So, of course I continued setting some out for them :)

Yummy!

Bushtits!

I always love a visit from this group! They don't come through often but when they do, they come through like gangbusters! These photos were taken on August 4, 2013

Hummingbird! Finally!

I can't believe it's December and I'm finally posting these photos from July! As you may recall from an earlier post HERE that I tried, unsuccessfully, last summer (2012) to attract Hummers. This past July, I hung 2 feeders and decided to create a little Hummer garden in my front yard. It was late July so it was slim pickins at the garden center. I planted red Petunias to get their attention and added some Salvia they had in stock. They had sold out of the recommended kind (Blue-black I think it was), anyway... no luck. I headed to another garden center and the nice lady there told me to get some Agastache and that they were like 'Hummingbird magnets'. It was on sale so that was a bonus! I bought 6 plants, came home and added them to my garden. Next day, I kid you not, there was a Hummer on the Agastache...just like a magnet they were indeed! The little hummer came back a few more times that day so I finally grabbed my camera and sat and waited, and waited and...got the above shots. I have more on my Flickr HERE from this session if you would like to see them.
Eventually I had two of them politely (and sometimes not so politely) taking turns at the flowers and feeder.

They found a favorite perching spot near the new tree in our yard and would sit there for quite sometime.

My two little Hummers visited everyday for about a month and just like that...they were gone :( I miss them so much!!!
If anyone has any idea of what type of Hummingbird this is, please let me know. I tried and tried to figure it out but they are tricky to identify!