BIRDING TO THE EDG

Colorado has a set of four mountains in the central core of the Rockies that comprise of what is known as, "The High Mountain Loop!" This is one of my most favorite places to go birding since it allows access to every mountain species you would want to find. The loop includes Guanella Pass, Georgia Pass, Boreas Pass, and Loveland Pass. The wet areas offer Wilson's Warbler, Fox Sparrows, and Lincoln's Sparrows. The spruce has Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers, and Pine Siskins. The Pine's offer a collection of cool birds such as this male Red-naped Sapsucker. However, it may not be the pines that this bird is attracted to, but the mix of Ponderosa Pine and Quaking Aspen. I find many sapsucker nests in aspens trees here in the Rockies. Where there are aspen trees there is usually a Red-naped Sapsucker. What a striking bird! Don't you agree?

Once considered the same species as Yellow-bellied Sapsucker scientists discovered that differences do occur. Red-naped Sapsucker has a nearly all red throat, less distinctive malar stripe and of course, a red nape. The red throat extends through the black malar mark making it almost disappear (see photo above). Yellow-bellied Sapsucker has a prominent black malar stripe, but breeds in the east primarily. The Red-naped Sapsucker breeds in the Rockies and the inter-mountain west. You might ask why I called this sapsucker a male bird. Well, females show a white chin and then the red throat below. Can you see how the red extends all the way through the chin? That is the best way to tell the girls from the boys.

After coming off of the sapsucker trail, I was never so excited in my life then when this American Marten (AKA Pine Marten) ran out in front of my car and into the spruce woods. I quickly got my camera and headed into the woods after it. I darn near left my 4Runner in the middle on the road. I noticed the marten ran up a tree, so I figured I could snap a few shots. I have spent many months camping in American Marten habitat and have only seen one other one, so this was killer for me. This little one was actually fairly social as it climbed down the same tree I was standing next to. These creatures are so nimble in the canopy that the marten could have easily moved about it's way above me. Maybe this one was just as curious about me as I was about him/her.

The American Marten is a Mustelid otherwise known as a member of the weasel family. This mammal breeds all across the Alaskan and Canadian Taiga and also extends down into the Cascade Range, Rocky Mountains, and northern Appalachians breeding in mixed coniferous forest, but showing much preference to spruce. Populations are thought to be stable, but certainly a tough little bugger to see. This is probably why their population is well off; nobody can find them with regularity!

Quick Optics Tip: When I was in the forest looking at this Marten from my Monarch X binoculars I couldn't help but notice the depth-of field. When choosing a binocular make sure that you evaluate how far depth-wise your subject is in focus at one point. With the Monarch X, I could see the entire length of this marten, in focus, when it was looking at me. Pretty cool stuff! Good Depth-of Field allows the birder to view the subject more and not focus on focusing so much! Visit www.nikonbirding.com for more information on optics.

Thanks for reading and please join back for more Nikon adventures!

All photos were taken by Mike Freiberg with a Nikon D200 and a 300mm F4 Nikkor lens.