Head-turner

We had a nice winter snap invade the Front Range of Colorado over the last few days, and I'm sitting here looking out at a snowy scene and busy feeders in my backyard (when I'm not looking at my screen, that is.) Al and Connie Kogler were doing much the same yesterday morning as they watched the birds visiting their feeders up in Loveland. I imagine their thought process may have been something like this:
House Finch- nice splash of color...


American Tree Sparrow- dapper little winter bird...


Pink-sided Junco- Such a perk living in Colorado where all of the Dark-eyed Junco forms are possible...


Northern Flicker- handsome & charismatic...






Yellow... er, orange... uh, black faced... um, WHAT THE?????
Yeah, an oriole!!! Nothing else that orange & yellow with dark face and a bill like that. But in December? In Colorado??? Guess so.

Connie got some pics and announced that she had an oriole on our state list (Cobirds), and some other birders who saw her pics raised the possibility that it could be a Streak-backed Oriole (which would be Colorado's first.) I got word of the bird and headed up yesterday afternoon, but was too late by about an hour, and I left in the dark snowstorm disappointed. I was hopeful that the bird could survive a night of snow and low temps (it got to about 10° F last night), but I can't say I was overly optimistic that anyone else would ever see it alive again. I set my alarm, though, and headed off to try again this morning. I arrived to find Al & Connie's cul-de-sac full of cars and their kitchen full of grinning birders- a good sign to say the least. Everyone had just seen it up close (like 15 feet away) and in the clear, but it had retreated into a spruce tree right before my arrival to avoid a Merlin's attention. Now, the worst words a birder can hear are "you should have been here ____ (minutes, hours, days, or whatever) ago...", but I was able to find it through a gap in the branches. Photographically impossible but at least I had it. Not to worry, though- several times throughout my stay it came down to a tray feeder on the ground to partake of the smorgasboard that was offered- grape jelly, an orange, mealworms, suet pellets, and a variety of mixed seed. I got some great shots along with everyone else through the kitchen window (with all of the shutters firing it sounded like Britney Spears had just came out of a nightclub to the awaiting paparazzi.) After a few rounds of this, I set up again outside, sitting on the ground against the garage wall to keep a low profile (and thoroughly chilling my glutes.) Sure enough, the bird continued to visit the feeder and I got some more images without the extra filter of double-pane window glass. Schweet- lifer, photos, state bird all rolled into one. Thanks, Al & Connie!!