It was very overcast this morning, and the mountains were engulfed with fog, so I decided to do a little birding here in Old Trail. I ended up with 21 avian species. I wasn't in a hurry to process my photos, as I hadn't seen anything really special - until I started processing the photos!
I started off at the wetlands near the lodge, and saw a HUGE Rock Pigeon perched on a railing there. While Mourning Doves are common here, it's unusual to see a Rock Pigeon, and this one was so big that it reminded me of the Woodpigeons I had seen in England. It also was very light in color, and I wondered if its plumage just made it look bigger.
Rock Pigeon
Rock Pigeon
Rock Pigeon
I then hike along the golf course pond, where I saw a few interesting species.
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Indigo Bunting
There were more birds in the trees on the south side of the pond. I saw another Eastern Kingbird in a tree with a Blue Jay and a juvenile Cedar Waxwing. The Cedar Waxwing was on the pond side of the tree, so I spent most of the time there trying to get a picture of it in focus with all the branches in the way. I should have focused more on this Eastern Kingbird. When I began going through my photos on my computer, I saw that this Eastern Kingbird had orange crown feathers! I have never seen an Eastern Kingbird with such feathers, and cannot find any descripton of this species with this feature.
Eastern Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird