Canon City birding 8-25-05

I stopped by the east end of the Canon City Riverwalk about 4 pm. In the field before the trail I saw 2 juvenile Eastern Phoebes (with their yellow bellies, dipping their tails in phoebe fashion) sharing a fence with 2 Western Kingbirds. The same area produced a number of Blue Grosbeaks (both adult males, females and immatures), migrating Wilson's Warblers, 1 male Downy Woodpecker (on a mullein plant), more than a dozen migrating Western Tanagers and 1 Empid (shorthand for Empidonax flycatcher, a group that is very difficult to identify except by voice).

Down the Riverwalk trail I saw a MacGillivray's Warbler that first by it's "chip" note. Several Western Wood-Pewees fussed with each other. More Wilson's Warblers were moving through including several males with their distinctive small black caps. And I heard the distinctive "bidi, bidi, bidi, bidi" call (that's what it sounds like to me) then saw a White-breasted Nuthatch. When I was joined later by another birder, he saw a Olive-sided Flycatcher.

SeEtta