Waterton Canyon is a nearby attraction for me (southwest of Denver, Colorado), and it’s both scenic and peaceful — so it’s just a shame that I don’t get there very often. The canyon was carved by the Platte River, and has an incredibly gentle trail to hike (repurposed from its original genesis as a railroad bed), so I don’t even have difficulty as an excuse.

Regardless, I went on a hike there recently along with other members of a local photography group — we were primarily there to see bighorn sheep, but ran across some interesting birds in the process.

Let’s start with the Spotted Towhee:

This little bird was hopping from branch to branch in brush covering a hillside — it made him a tricky capture, but a nice spot of color in the gray branches. I think its eyes are particularly interesting.

Next up, one of a small flock of American Dippers:

These little critters are aquatic hunters — and they were hard at work when we saw them. They also have white eyelids, so you see a tiny flash when they blink (more on that in a future post).

Finally, a Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay:

We saw a pair of these birds near the mouth of the canyon — they were busy stashing acorns in caches between rocks. It turns out they’re very intelligent little birds, capable of remembering where all their cached nuts are, as well as of making sure other scrub-jays aren’t watching where their caches are left.

For what it’s worth, all these photographs were made using an OM System OM-1II camera and M.Zuiko 150-400mm lens.