This seems like a banner year for Lark Buntings in northern Colorado. On and
Friday June 5 I conducted my BBS route in Weld County, which begins 7 miles
north of Nunn at the junction of 114 Rd and Hwy 85 and heads east and north
from there. I counted 601 Lark Buntings across 50 stops, the most in my 3
years of running this route. At one stop I counted 30 birds, mostly males
perched up or displaying, within 400 m. Similarly several other stops had over
20 birds. Other species (McCown's Longspur, Brewer's Sparrow) numbers seemed to
be down a bit (51 and 24, respectively), although I haven't yet checked last
year's records to verify. I suppose it's possible they were pushed out by the
super abundant LARBs, but perhaps I just underdetected them due to the din of
LARB song and my attention toward scanning/counting, although I did make a
conscious effort. A great day overall with calm winds, cool weather,
great wildflowers, and great birds.
Other highlights included a total of 5 Ferruginous Hawks, 7 Swainson's Hawks,
2 Burrowing Owls, 10 Loggerhead Shrikes, and 13 Cassin's Sparrows (less than
last year). No Chestnut-collared Longspurs that I could detect. At a small
wetland on 122 Rd, 2 miles west of 77 rd (the one that head north from Crow
Valley), I had what seemed to be a breeding spotted sandpiper, blue-winged and
cinnamon teal, gadwall, mallards, shovelers, coots, and an avocet.
Yesterday in northwest Weld County I did have several male Chesnut-collared
Longspurs displaying, and 2 females, at a wet meadow immediately southeast of
the Carr exit on I-25 (last exit in Colorado before Wyoming). There is no
public access to this area although it is possible one or more of the
birds could be heard or seen from the road. the others were further down this
drainage, occupying both the taller bluegrass areas and the adjacent
shorter-statured western wheatgrass. There song to me was like a McCown's
Longspur imitating a Western Meadowlark, and doing a pretty good job of it.
cheers,
Arvind Panjabi
5700' feet, Larimer County, CO
On the north slope of Milner Mtn
Mountain mahogany shrubland and grassland
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