Aspen Birding III:The Community Garden
When: August 2019 Weather : hot and sunny 24C
Leica M10P summilux, Nikon P900, Sony RX10mk4
After we spent half an hour at Hallam Lake, Rebecca brought us to the Community Garden just on the outskirts of town, off the 82 where locals tend their allotments….a huge variety of plants and flowers were in full bloom and the birds and insects were naturally attracted…
Behind this nondescript gate were many flowering plants…
almost immediately we were assaulted by an explosion of colours in the sunlit garden
oranges and purples, reds and yellows everywhere we looked
we immediately saw lots of these little guys zipping around…
They barely paused for a couple of seconds to perch and you had to be very quick with the camera
the gorgeous Broad tailed hummingbird with its warm brown coloration
the brown coloration on the side of the Broad Tailed HB easily seen here.
just a most joyous encounter with this delightful hummingbird
Broad Tailed hummingbird
here zipping towards the camera
and then perched on the wire…the other species …the Black-chinned hummingbird
black chinned hummingbird without the ‘warm’ colours of the broad tailed HB
black chinned HB feeding
black chinned HB feeding
and yes, there were some other birds too……orange crowned warbler with a not very orange crown
and this delightful bird flitted around
it was a green tailed towhee..another lifer
greentailed towhee
the green tailed towhee…at least this one is appropriately named!
?immature chipping sparrow
song sparrow
western kingbird with breakfast
another song sparrow?
the abiding memory of this lovely tiny garden will surely be of the humming birds which challenge the glory of the blooms…
In birding we win some we lose some, the Aspen Community Garden was a big time winner! We were there barely an hour and we had just the most spectacular encounters. This also illustrates the benefit of engaging a local guide who in the limited time we had showed us more than we could have hoped for! Highly recommended.
The Natural Traveller 