RMNP: July 2015 House Wrens

I carved out time for one day in Rocky Mountain National Park on our trip back to Colorado earlier this month. It was a meander from the east side to the west on my way from Littleton to Crested Butte with Zak, which is the very definition of "taking the scenic route" since the park is a good 90 minutes away from what would be considered any sort of direct route between the two places.

As with all visits to RMNP, it was completely worth the drive.

I was mainly on the lookout for "charismastic megafauna" like deer, elk and bighorn sheep.  While driving the dirt road to the Fern Lake trailhead I heard some incessant chirping in a tree.  Suspecting some sort of nest of babies, I got out and scrambled a short distance up the hillside for a better look ... and was soon greeted by this House Wren.  A bird with a meal is a treat for a photographer, so I quickly snapped a shot of him with his prize.

Conditions were overcast and the hour was early, so light was low overall.  But sitting on certain branches yielded a bright background and opportunity for a silhouette.  Not quite as menacing as, say, a raven.  Or Alfred Hitchcock.  But still a nice effect.

I think there were at least two of the little birds about.  And when one showed up with a beak full of what appeared to be nesting material, I was convinced the chirping I could still hear but not yet see was coming from their brood.

If bursting into song is an indication of contentment, my presence wasn't the least bit concerning to them.  They did this regularly enough that I got into a good rhythm of being able to time shots for when they were in full throat.

I love the curious look in this shot, enhanced by the catchlight on the eye.

"His lens was THIS big!"

It turned out the babies I could hear weren't wrens.  They were Red-naped Sapsuckers.  Or at least, they were being fed by one.  I waited patiently for the parent's infrequent returns, slowly being bled dry by mosquitoes.  And all the while the wrens kept coming back.  So I kept shooting them.

I never did get a great shot of the woodpecker.  With a little more patience and insect repellent I probably could have.  But there was still much to see in the park, and I decided it would be better to move on than stick around.  Besides, how many shots did I really need of a House Wren singing?

Well, just one more couldn't hurt anything. :)