Panorama Point…by Brad Marks

Shockingly December is ticking off faster than the previous month. In this case, it is a good thing since it puts us closer to warmer weather – Linda and I head south soon after jolly St. Nick squeezes down our chimney. It is getting a bit stressful as another Average Year effort (link here) is also coming to a close. Currently sitting at 337 and Ron has added two since I updated the stats putting him at 299 – just one under our pre-kickoff 300 species goal. You may recall, we both missed it by a feather last year (link here). Carrying on the sub-species theme from my last post, Brad is going to bring us another adventure from his Colorado trip. Unfortunately Brad, no extra partial count credit for sub-species ha. 

Take it away Brad…

I’m one that always like to take a new road to see where it goes.  However, I’m not always successful and sometimes have to do a fair bit of backtracking.  Jan and I had just returned from a whirlwind tour to Devils Tower, the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, and Wind Cave (see here).  The kids had to work that Monday morning.  Jan and I had the entire day to explore the Front Range of the Rockies near Denver.  I know, I know, a very big task for only a day.

This is really part two of a trip to Golden Gate Canyon State Park (GGCSP) in Colorado.  We had succeeded in getting to the park before many other visitors.  In fact, thus far we had seen ZERO other visitors.  After leaving the Mountain Bluebirds behind (link here), I found a wandering, spaghetti-like curved road. 

Red-Backed Dark-Eyed Junco by Brad Marks

Hit the jump to learn about what was “eyed” at the end of this Colorado adventure.

Obviously, flatlanders would have a bit of a challenge paying attention to the road and road signs with scenery like that in the background.  A mile or three, and several Etch-a-Sketch (kids ask your parents about Etch-a-Sketch) hairpin curves later, we found a GGCSP sign that pointed straight up the mountain.  The road was not paved; it was only graded dirt.  We met two Caterpillar motor graders on the way up the mountain.  I was surprised just how good a job they were doing with just dirt for a surface; the road was really very smooth.

As Jan and I wound our way up the mountain, we followed signs for Panorama Point.  I mean the name must say it all, right?  The higher we drove, the more snow we saw and the smaller the trees became.  The roads were clear, but everything else was covered with a couple inches of new snow.  It is April in the Rockies after all.  The ground approaching Panorama Point was above 9,000 feet of elevation, well above the state average of 6,860 feet.  Once we found the 6-slot parking area, we made sure we had the temporary park pass on the dashboard. 

I readied the cameras, closed the rear hatch this time, and locked the car doors.  Jan was already walking up the trail to the observation area.  At the end of the observation platform, we quickly learned where the picnic area got its name.

Red-Backed Dark-Eyed Junco by Brad Marks

Obviously, we stopped to soak in the view of the distant snow-covered peaks, and took a few selfies with our smartphones (no, those aren’t part of the story).  Even though the picnic area was in the trees, the tree line wasn’t very far above us.  As you can see from the photos, there were clumps of snow in the trees.  From time to time, a clump would warm ever so slightly and fall through the pine branches.  Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw movement with many of these clumps falling.  But each time I would turn to look, I couldn’t see anything.  Something caught my attention, so I walked back to the entrance of the observation area.  I saw a little grey and brown lump moving on the ground near the stairs.  Raising my camera to my eye, I tried to find the lump in the viewfinder.  Nothing.  Then on the edge of my vision it moved again.  Still nothing.  More movement.  Aha!  I finally caught it.

Red-Backed Dark-Eyed Junco by Brad Marks

It looked like a Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) from home.  But the color wasn’t quite right.  The birds we have at home in Illinois are dark slate on top, and nearly snow white on the bottom with a very crisp line separating the two colors.  This one was a bit lighter slate on top and dusky on the bottom with subtle color gradient from top to bottom.  It also looked like it had a brown leaf stuck on its back, or a tiny bird cape.

Red-Backed Dark-Eyed Junco by Brad Marks

It wasn’t until later that I found out this was, in fact, a Dark-eyed Junco.  However, it was no run-of-the-mill Dark-eyed Junco.  Instead, it was a Grey-headed variant of the bird that frequents our feeders during the long Illinois winters. (I can hear the Minnesotans protesting right about now, “You think your winters are long . . . “) Dark-eyed Juncos are not a +1 for me, but this variant is, so it’s a +1/3? Grey-headed Juncos look a lot like the Red-backed version, except for the single colored bill on the Grey (Reds have a bi-color bill).

Red-Backed Dark-Eyed Junco by Brad Marks

While not a very good photo of this Junco, it does illustrate the “red” patch on its back and shoulders.  See why I thought it might be a leaf?  Of course, there were a bunch of small twigs and stems on the ground that the Junco preferred to hide behind.  I couldn’t reposition easily without scaring it, or getting even more twigs in the way.  My camera always seemed to want to focus on the twigs instead of the bird.  I was able to catch a few more photos before it flew up to the trees on the other side of the observation platform. 

I didn’t know what the photos looked like until we were back in the hotel later that day.  They nearly always look perfect on the small LCD on the back of the camera.  Exposing a dark bird with a snowy background is difficult.  The camera wants to normally underexpose snow, and overexpose a dark object.  But place a dark object in the middle of snow and it really doesn’t know what to do.  (The same is true with a very light object on a very dark background.)  Luckily for me, Lightroom was able to tease out some details and give the photos a bit more balance. 

I climbed back up the five steps to the observation deck.  The Junco flitted from one tree to another.  And then to yet another.  I slowly followed it through the icy snow on the deck to another lookout location.  I watched it settle on a large chunk of granite and stare at me.

Red-Backed Dark-Eyed Junco by Brad Marks

It seemed like it was posing and wanted me to take more photos of its good side.  I happily obliged.  For about nine photos, then it was gone again.  I didn’t see it for the rest of the visit to Panorama Point.  But with views of the mountains like the one above, I really didn’t care.

Thank you for reading.  If you want to see more Dark-eyed Junco photos (slate-colored or grey-headed), please visit here.

Credits

Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing.  Allyson is still on assignment.  Thanks to Jan for some of the photos in this article.

61 thoughts on “Panorama Point…by Brad Marks”

    1. You are probably right about the variant. Few of the Junco variants look like the others, except this one and the Dark-eyed we have at home. I’ll have to work on the variant count for my annual evaluation at Intrigued. Thanks for stopping by.

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      1. Sorry, no partial credit, but they do help pad the performance review writeup which can get you the super secret extra bonuses that nobody is supposed to talk about so it doesn’t look like certain employee are getting extra credit ..oh wait, different life ha.

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    2. Hey now, rules are rules and if I start letting some of our staff get by with bending them, then the legal department will get wind and start running amuck and NOBODY and I mean NOBODY wants that. Luckily Brad has that area somewhat under control now – no idea what he did, but the 2022 corporate Christmas party was void of the usually butt xeroxing mayhem. This year’s ended with a 911 call, but that is whole different story.

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  3. Dark-eyed, Leaf Junco. That works. Cute bird. I loved driving all around Colorado in 2002 and in 2008. Wolf Creek Pass almost got us, as we (my ex and I) did a 180 in our van. Luckily, we were stopped from going over a steep drop-off by a well placed guard rail. I shook for over an hour.

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    1. Remind me not to ride with you in the mountains. hehehe Glad to hear the guard rail did its job. I only mind driving in the mountains because I don’t get to look at the scenery when I’m behind the wheel. Thanks for stopping by.

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      1. When we came to a stop, we were both dead silent for 30 seconds. We had been passing sections on that road that didn’t have guard rails, even with drop offs. We were on US160, heading towards Durango but, the roads got so bad, we turned around. I told my ex…after I stopped shaking…that we definitely had angels in that van, looking after us. The passenger side rear bumper caught the guard rail. I was glad I didn’t have to pee.

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    2. A bit bittersweet for us here in the Midwest – when our variant shows up we know winter is upon us. One of the few birds we smile when they leave as we know the weathers gonna change for the better soon!

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  5. What a great find! I vote for Chris’s suggestion, above, Dark-eyed Leaf Junco. You thought your junco was trying to escape, but he was actually just searching for the most photogenic perch – that lichen-covered boulder is perfect.

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    1. I didn’t realize there were so many variants of Juncos that really don’t look like each other. Any other bird would have had a separate name it seems. Thanks for the kind words on the Junco/granite portrait. It posed for several seconds and then was gone for another photo shoot.

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    2. Yes, a shocking number of variants and some of those even look very similar making it even harder to distinguish in the field. To there credit, they are all rather cute to look at. Thanks for dropping in Sherry.

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  7. At least with the “cape” it wasn’t faster than speeding bullet, otherwise you might have had “red streaks” in your images. Always fun to find something a little off. Now, when will we see some nature/landscape pics of those mountain views?

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    1. Same here Ted. They show up at probably the same day every year, dance around in the snow (if we have any), and then leave in the Spring. I didn’t realize there are so many variants. But all cute in their own way. Thanks for stopping by.

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    2. Guess I never checked their consistency before – great idea, I am going to start tracking the day they arrive/leave. You are right, they don’t prefer the low country (just looked at the map). Always assumed there was some variant that covered the totality of the US. Learn something new every day!

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  16. This is one of Colorado’s State Parks I have never visited, but now I would like to. The panoramic view in your first photo is beautiful. And the junco really posed for the last photo, even showing off the white outer tail feathers. They are so helpful in identifying the species when the birds fly around and don’t sit still.

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