Because the Canon City area was hit by a severe storm yesterday with very heavy rains, I couldn't access the area where I heard the Black-throated Sparrows until the road-wide mud puddles dried-out enough to drive safely. When I got to the site where I found them yesterday, it took less than 5 minutes to refind a singing male (females have not been observed singing according to *Birds of North America *online). I observed him and listened to his tinkling song as he sang intermittantly for over an hour until around noon. Some of the time he perched high on top of deciduous vegetation and I got at least one very good photo of him that I will post on my blog at http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com tonight.
At least one other Black-throated Sparrow in juvenal plumage perched near an adult bird some of the time. And a bird in juvenal plumage flew in towards an adult bird, possibly begging to be fed, but the adult bird flew away appearing to be chased by the bird in juvenal plumage. I think it is a good possibility that Black-throated Sparrows have nested in this area. This species is known to have a second brood though this has not been documented according to the *Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas *edited by Kingery. *Birds of North America *states, "Monsoon rains in mid-June through July can stimulate renewed nesting activity, prolonging the breeding se115ason and often allowing a second brood." Given the very heavy rains in this area in severe storms both yesterday and today, maybe it will simulate moonsoon rains and stimulate another nesting. There is the possibility that these birds will stay in this area for some additional period of time so I will provide directions in case anyone wants to try for them. They are located adjacent to CR79 just a few miles south of Canon City accessed from CR11-A off of H115 (a mile or so east of MacKenzie Ave and H115). The birds are in a (usually) dry gulch about 50 feet north of CR79 (you can see the deciduous trees rising above a berm). I have seen them from about 25 feet to 200 feet east of the "Falling Rock" road sign. Though the land in the area is not fenced, it is all private property. This is one of my breeding bird atlas blocks and I have good relationships with property owners in the area so please do not trespass. If the birds are there and singing, just be patient as the male will fly up on top of a tree that is easily viewable from the roadside. Be careful of traffic, be sure to pull as far to the side of the road as possible--not a lot of traffic but they drive this very rough, washboard road (it was rough even before the drenching rains) as though on a freeway. And since the rains, parts of the road have collapsed at the edges. This road becomes very muddy and slippery after a rain and may be impassable after much more rain as the ground is saturated. I will work on putting a map for this site on my blog. There may be a number of other birds singing in this very nice (looks are deceptive) area including Rock Wrens, Canyon Wrens, Spotted Towhees, Canyon Towhees, Lark Sparrows, Curve-billed Thrashers, W. Scrub-Jay, Cassin's and Western Kingbirds, Ash-throated Flycatchers, Western Wood-Pewees, and Northern Mockingbirds. Unfortunately some folks engage in target practice a few hundred yards from the location from the sparrow location. And there are those who drive their dirt-bikes illegally in the gulch where the sparrows are located (when it happened this morning while I was watching the sparrows a neighbor stopped, noting they were having a big problem with dirt-bikers and warned that dirt-bikers had threatened folks in the area--there are clearly disadvantages as well as advantages to living in the boondocks). SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
