After waking up early today I decided to give some nocturnal birding a try. Not hearing anything in Longmont, I decided to head east and found myself in Haxtun City Park before sun up. American Robins were make some alarm calls so I quickly found the Great Horned Owl. A softer chirp lead me to a SWAINSON'S THRUSH. I saw three individuals.
Next I headed south east to 'climb' the highest point in Phillips Cty, Which turned up BREWER;S SPARROWs and the first of many Nothern Harriers. Leaving the county line with Logan I headed east towards Holyoke on CR 18 where I cam across a weird mixed flock of Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, American Robins, Mourning Doved and a half dozen Chipping Sparrows. A dark morph FERRUGINOUS HAWK landed on a roll of hay later on down the road. On the way into Holyoke I spotted a RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. The first of three around town. The sewage ponds turned up a lone TREE SWALLOW among the many Barn Swallows. A stop a Frenchcreek SWA was productive. What looked like an Olice-sided Flycatcher fly off the post when I pulled in the lot off of CR 27, but I couldn't refind it. A EASTERN and WESTERN KINGBIRD were perched on the wire across the road at the farm house. The fruit trees.shrubs held at least eight BROWN THRASHERS, AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, GRAY CATBIRD and CLAY-COLORED SPARROW. Walking east a very annoyed Brown Thrasher turned me on to a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. The sharpy then went after the thrasher, but the larger thrasher escaped into the junipers. There was a ROCK WREN in the broken concrete at the dam and my only warbler of the day below the dam. (WILSON'S WARBLER) Heading south I ended up east of Fiddler Peak which sent me out on CR 35. This turned out to be a bonus. Two ORNATE BOX TURTLEs, one WESTERN HOGNOSE SNAKE, and rounding a corner a GREATER PRAIRE-CHICKEN had to get off the road quickly flying right over my vehicle barely missing. If my sun roof was open I could have grabbed it. Sadly my camera battery died after the box tutle photo or I could of had a picture of chicken track in the road. There were to small ponds on CR 35. The first one held only a Great Blue Heron and the second had a Blue & Green-winged Teal, GREATER YELLOWLEGS and a WILSON'S SNIPE The water on CR 2 between road 29 & 31 was not over the road, but it was still right nrxt to the road. By now the wind was picking up. Coots, Green & Blue-winged Teal, Mallard (Yuma) and a lone HORNED GREBE (Yuma) were the only water fowl. Many Killdeer, one SPOTTED SANDPIPER, one probable WESTERN SANDPIPER (it hunkered down behind some clumps of mud) and ten WILSON'S PHALAROPE were the only shoebirds. Todd Deiniger Longmont, CO http://picasaweb.google.com/blueskyhapkido/RecentWildlifeSighting# --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
