Colorado wildlife: The Sage Thrasher - a first sighting for us

 

Traveling through bird habitats that are different than what we have here around the Mississippi Valley will necessarily lead to new encounters. The dry sagebrush plaines in the San Luis Valley, not far from Great Sand Dunes National Park, are the ideal place for the Sage Thrasher. There they can find insects, other invertebrates, and berries on the ground and in vegetation.

We saw them on fences, wooden posts, and in the bushes along small irrigation channels in this high-elevation desert. Needless to say that this was a first sighting for us and it took me a while to identify this bird. The Sage Thrasher is the smallest of the thrashers. Generic studies suggest that they are more closely related to the mockingbirds than true thrashers (source: iBird Pro app).

Brown Thrasher captured with SB600 and Better Beamer flash extender

 

We had the third rainy day in a row and our original plans to use the kayaks during this holiday weekend had to be dumped. The canopy of leaves doesn't let much light coming through anymore and so it was the right decision to take the SB600 flashlight and Better Beamer flash extender with me when we went for a hike on the Heritage trail this afternoon. For those who are new in my blog, the Heritage trail is on an old abandoned railroad track that ones connected Chicago with St. Paul in Minnesota. It follows the Little Maquoketa River just north of Dubuque, Iowa and is a great trail for all kinds of recreation, including nature photography. Because of the weather all the bicycle riders and runners that are usually on the trail stayed home and we had it all for ourselves.

We saw several warblers, Indigo Buntings, and American Redstarts again and the young eagle that we discovered recently in a nest has grown quite a bit. The best shooting opportunity came shortly after we started our little hike. For the second time this year a Brown Thrasher showed up in front of the lens. You can click HERE for the older post about this bird. I would not have been able to make this photo without the flashlight and flash extender attached to it. I don't care how far I have to carry the equipment. If at the end of the day one image that I like is on the flash card , I know it was worth the effort...

Nature clicks #163 - Brown Thrasher

This image is not here to win a photo contest but I like to show you another bird that I encountered for the first time. I can't keep up posting all the new stuff I saw recently and this was already nine days ago at the Mississippi River. The Brown Thrasher can be found in the Eastern and Central part of the Unites States during the summer. However, I have never seen one before. I had just looked for the young Great Horned Owl (see my older posts about the owlet) high up in the tree when I saw the thrasher landing on a branch near the ground. I immediately recognized that this was a bird I wasn't familiar with and so I just handhold the lens quickly and fired a couple shots at least for later identification. It turned out I had a good day and both images were not as unsharp as I thought they would be. Not tack-sharp but still good enough to share with you another first bird sighting. I hope you enjoy!