Hello, Birders. I love the Fox Ranch. The place never ceases to amaze me. This past weekend, Saturday-Sunday, May 16th-17th, participants in a birding trip sponsored by The Nature Conservancy got to see a great variety of birds at this Yuma County hot spot. The birding was kinda weird, but it was wonderful. We saw very few neotropical migrants, for example, but we sure saw some good ones. Check out these wacked-out ratios: * We saw three times as many Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (3) as Orange-crowned Warblers (1). * We saw twice as many Ovenbirds (2) as MacGillivray's Warblers (1). * We saw more Tennessee Warblers (1) than Yellow-rumped Warblers (0). * We saw more Blue-headed Vireos (1) than Wilson's Warblers (0). Other cool stuff: 9 Red-headed Woodpeckers, 3 Eastern Phoebes, 7 Eastern Bluebirds, 15+ Brown Thrashers, 3 Upland Sandpipers, 1 Northern Cardinal, 1 Baltimore Oriole, and 10 Orchard Orioles. Among the few migrant species were: 2 Least Flycatchers, 20ish Swainson's Thrushes, 1 American Pipit, 5 Lazuli Buntings, 35+ Clay-colored Sparrows, 75+ American Goldfinches, and 15+ Pine Siskins. What's up with all the Pine Siskins out there?? And the goldfinches were cool, too. Also: among several Wood Ducks, a female flying up to an apparent nest site; a Greater Prairie-Chicken flying across County Road U; lots of Wild Turkeys and several Ring-necked Pheasants at dawn; a quite random Snowy Egret at a little farm pond; and a Spotted Towhee with almost no spots (a hybrid?). There were some neat "Eastern" taxa out there. Most notable was Eastern and Western Warbling-Vireos singing in the same grove; the Fox Ranch might be a great place to work out assortative breeding in these two quite-different populations. All the White-breasted Nuthatches were confirmed or suspected to be of the Eastern carolinensis population. All the Northern Flickers were mainly to entirely Yellow-shafted. And all the Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers appeared to have Eastern genetic influences. Finally, the night birding was great. A highlight was hearing an Upland Sandpiper migrating over at 3:15 in the morning on Sunday; there were a few Swainson's Thrushes aloft, too, and a few Lark Buntings. (Supposedly, Lark Buntings don't migrate at night...but they do.) Another highlight was hearing Cassin's Sparrows all up and down County Road U starting in the 2am hour after moonrise. A wicked Barn Owl called erratically throughout the night and made two excellent appearances; the chorusing Eastern Screech-Owls at daybreak were nice, too. Common Poorwills and Common Nighthawks were back in force, and we heard a Sora at sundown on Saturday. About the Blue-headed Vireo. As some of you know, I have "issues" with this taxon. Well, this bird was about as good as it gets. Mike Bloom got us on this bird, and we right away were struck by the bright colors and the high level of contrast, especially in the malar region. Assuming Blue-headed and Cassin's Vireos really can be separated in the field (I'm a skeptic), this one was a fine candidate for Blue-headed. And an "asterisk" on the Ovenbirds. One of them was dead (and very fresh--still had its eyes). But an hour later we all saw a nice, live bird walking on the lawn by the ranch headquarters. Thanks to Project Director William Burnidge and Fox Ranch Manager Nathan Andrews for access to this splendid site. Remember, please, that the Fox Ranch is a privately held working ranch, and that prior permission is required for access. Ted Floyd [email protected] Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding ------------------------------- Please support the American Birding Association: Click on http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=884482 to search the internet. Every search provides support to the ABA's programs in Education, Conservation, and Publications. Please visit the website of the American Birding Association: http://www.aba.org _________________________________________________________________ Insert movie times and more without leaving Hotmail®. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/QuickAdd?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_QuickAdd1_052009 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Join us at the 2009 Convention in Alamosa: http://cfo-link.org/convention/index.php
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