Day 7 - Colorado Springs - Touring and Birds at the Feeder!

My sister's lovely husband Bill took us on a tour of Colorado Springs and the surrounding area on our second full day there.  This is on a back road to Cripple Creek and is overlooking Colorado Springs.

We stopped along the way to view several metal sculptures that were done by a local man.  Although no longer alive, Bill said that  you would often go by and he would be busy welding in his yard.  There were several of these sculptures standing and one very large one fallen.

You can see the size there by the car in the foreground.

This is the Broadmoor from above.  This is another famous Colorado Springs landmark but there is no way to get in and visit without booking a very expensive night!  The homes around this hotel were very high end!!

 More scenes from above on this dirt road that kept getting narrower and narrower until we decided best to turn around while we still could!

We headed to this beautiful falls where there were lots of wildflowers.

I many have these names wrong but this is a variety of Evening Primrose.

This is a Spring Beauty.

These are Larkspur.

Of course no trip would be complete without some new and old birds which I spotted at my sister's feeder.

This is a Lesser Goldfinch which is the variety out here in the west.  Lots and lots of those were at the feeder!

This is a Hairy Woodpecker which we have around here but Gail said this was the first time they had seen one at their feeder!

 This is a Red-breasted Nuthatch which was a first sighting for me -- beautiful bird found both east and west.

 This is a red-shafted Northern Flicker.  We have the  yellow-shafted variety in the east.

This is an Asian Collared Dove which were pretty plentiful at her feeder.  We have these in the east but don't think they are as common as they were out there!!

After a great dinner out, we woke up early on the next morning and headed for Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, one of the parks I  had not visited on my last big national park tour ten years ago!