Montrose, CO (7/29 thru 8/29/2018)

Not much travel for me over the past month, mostly hanging out near home.  That doesn't mean I've been sitting on my duff all that time.  Well, actually I have but a lot of it has been in the LRJ, driving back roads chasing waterfalls, sunsets and doing a lot of bird photography.  So here's a sample of my activities over the past few weeks.

The wildfire near Montrose has been burning this entire period, becoming one of the largest in Colorado history.  Helpful rain within the past several days helped the firefighters achieve almost total control, but not until some 30,000 acres had burned.  Fortunately, the location of the fire (on the Uncompahgre Plateau) has little of value.  It's mostly sage brush, pinyon pine and juniper trees.  All we saw of it here was smoke in the air, leading to some colorful sunsets when we could see them at all.

I made one day trip with a friend to look for a waterfall that came to my attention near Durango.  Directions were sort of vague, but we made the effort anyway.  We did find a couple small waterfalls, but couldn't find a trail to the large one said to be in that area.  After further research, I think it is located in a very deep canyon that we saw.  I could probably hike down to it, but I'm not sure of getting back out.  Anyway, here is a photo of one of the small waterfalls that was easy to get to.

Along the way, we spotted a grouse on the shoulder of the road, hiding in the weeds.

Also, while driving over Red Mountain Pass. we stopped for photos of Crystal lake with the Red Mountains in the background.  Unfortunately, wind had the lake stirred up, preventing any reflections of the mountains.

I've seen a lot of different birds during this time, many of which I've posted before, so I'll try to be selective for this post.  The IDs are my best effort, not guaranteed to be correct.

Black-billed Magpie

Say's Phoebe

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Western Scrub Jay

Sage Thrasher

American Kestrel

Red-tailed Hawk

Western Bluebird

Tree Sparrow

In "buggy" locations, there may be hundreds of swallows flying around eating insects.  Their erratic flight makes it a challenge to photograph them, but occasionally some will light on power lines, much easier to photograph.  I found one lazy barn swallow perched on a wire with its mouth open, waiting for bugs to fly into it.

Barn Swallow

Here's a normal house finch, and one having a bad hair day.

House Finch

There was a single red fox I spotted far off in a pasture, maybe 100 yards out.  He saw me and started running away.  By the time he stopped and looked back, he was more like 200 yards away, making it tough to get good photos.  But did you ever see such a beautiful bushy tail?

Almost every evening I go for a drive, there are mule deer at some point.  I rarely feel the need for a photo, but I did like the fawn that posed nicely, and since most of the deer I see are does, I was happy to snap a photo of the buck standing near the road.

I'm aware that some readers aren't thrilled with bird photos, so give me some feedback to let me have your thoughts.