Out atlasing last week, Urling and I spent two days between Limon and Hugo.
One block (on June 23) had two flooded stubble field puddles big enough to harbor ducks and shorebirds. [The block's name is Lake -- oddly prescient of what we saw though 'lake' exaggerates the condition of the puddles.] One puddle held a Marbled Godwit, I presume an early south-bound migrant. It also had 3 American Avocets, two of them courting, sort of. The other had avocets and a Wilson's Phalarope. The duck selection included Gadwall, Mallard, Blue-winged Teal, and Northern Shoveler. Another pond, one of those odd things at an intersection, sported one pair each of Green-winged Teal and Northern Pintail. Some of these possibly nest out there but they ought to find better ponds. The plethora of Lark Buntings and Cassin's Sparrows persists (though we spent 4 hours in one block without seeing a Lark Bunting). We encountered our first Dickcissels (three of them) this year: not in alfalfa fields but in weedy patches (especially one big-leafed plant whose identify I don't know) surrounded by grassland or cropland. This seems more typical of the habitat I remember from previous years. We have seen several nesting Loggerhead Shrikes, two sets of Mountain Plovers in stubble fields, plus the other expected species of the high plains. Hugh Kingery --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
