Hello, Birders.
Bill Maynard, Bryan Patrick, Bill Schmoker, and I visited the Fox Ranch, Yuma
County, yesterday, Saturday, October 3rd. Highlights for us were Eastern
Phoebe, Cassin's Kingbird, Palm Warbler, 4 Field Sparrows, and at least 6 Le
Conte's Sparrows. Also of note were a problematic Western Kingbird, a possible
Sedge Wren (heard well, seen very poorly), and several "interesting"
meadowlarks. Other odds and ends out there: Wood Duck, Wild Turkey, Barn Owl,
Eastern Screech-Owl, Red-headed Woodpecker, and -carolinensis- White-breasted
Nuthatch. Migrant Lincoln's Sparrows and Western Meadowlarks were all over the
place. In the "montane/autumnal" category were Townsend's Solitaire, Cedar
Waxwing, Oregon Junco, Pink-sided Junco, and Pine Siskin.
Just off the Fox Ranch, at one of the Burnidge Playas along US-36 between Joes
and Idalia, we saw 2 McCown's Longspurs and about 60 Chestnut-collared
Longspurs. On the drive back, at Last Chance, Washington County, we were able
to track down the previously reported Roller's Black-cowled Yellowface; there
was a Brown Thrasher at Last Chance, too.
Here are some more details from the Fox Ranch, if anybody's interested:
Wood Duck. 8, in little groups along the Arickaree River.
Ring-necked Pheasant. 7, including a tailess male, in the tallgrass.
Wild Turkeys. 6, including 1 doing a Laughing Falcon impersonation.
Northern Bobwhite. 0, although a European Starling did a fine impersonation.
Sharp-shinned Hawk. A beautiful adult doing a Le Conte's Sparrow impersonation;
flushed it at a distance of ~10 feet from a reedbed along the Arickaree.
Ferruginous Hawk. A regal adult impersonating a regal adult of the species.
Barn Owl. 1, making the rounds in the prairie just south of the river.
Eastern Screech-Owl. At least 3 along the river. By the way, fine views at dawn
of Mercury (a planet, not a bird).
Red-headed Woodpecker. 2 still hanging on; getting a bit late.
wood-pewee, sp. No particular reason to say it wasn't a Western, but who knows?
October wood-pewees in far-eastern Colorado are always worthy of being
conjectured about.
Eastern Phoebe. 1 calling along the river.
Cassin's Kingbird. A nice adult.
Western Kingbird. A tricky adult. This mangled, unmolted bird had extensive
yellow well up onto the breast, brownish-olive upperparts, and a decent bill.
And it gave occasional "pick" notes. But it also had an unmistakable white
shaft on one (but not both) of the rectrices, also visible from above as a
narrow white border to the outer web of the feather; and the upper surface of
the tail was quite dark black. So I think it was a Western doing an okay
impersonation of a Couch's.
White-breasted Nuthatch. Nothing problematic about these 2. They said YANK YANK
as unambiguously as possible.
Rock Wren. 1 on a rock. Fancy that.
House Wren. 2 lingering.
-Cistothorus- wrens. 1 was a washed out Marsh that called nicely; 1 was silent
and just not seen well enough; and 1 called like a Sedge from a nice dry
pasture but also was not seen well enough.
Sprague's Pipit. None. We got skunked on this species for the first time in 4
years. It was a wet spring and summer out there, and maybe the habitat wasn't
as good this year as in recent years. Or maybe the birds just weren't there for
whatever reason, or possibly--quite possibly--they were there but simply
undetected.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet. 3 in the plantings by the field station.
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 1 lingering at the field station.
Townsend's Solitaire. At least 3 at the field station.
Cedar Waxwing. 1 adult and 1 immature at the field station.
Orange-crowned Warbler. 10, mainly at the field station.
Yellow-rumped Warbler. 4 Myrtles, 9 Audubon'ses, and 1 apparent intergrade,
throughout.
Palm Warbler. 1 of the nominate ("Western") subspecies near the
prairie-woodland transition downstream a ways from the field station.
Wilson's Warbler. 1 still at the field station.
Field Sparrow. 4, working their way generally south from the floodplain
tallgrass.
Ammodramus sparrows. At least 14 individuals in this genus; perhaps more like
20, total. We had 2 main gatherings, one consisting mainly of Grasshopper
Sparrows, the other consisting mainly or entirely of Le Conte's Sparrows. At
one point we had 5 Grasshopper Sparrows perched on barbed wire; there may well
have been others, but we had 5 in view at once. The definite Le Conte's
Sparrows were in a field of Erigonum, Bouteloua, and other grasses and forbs;
we had 3 on one side of the field, 3 on the other side, and others in between
that may well have been additional birds. Of course, we had a few that got
away, and 2 of them intrigued us for looking neither like Grasshopper nor Le
Conte's Sparrows; that happens.
Lincoln's Sparrow. We counted at least 19. We heard a number giving their
distinctive, fine, buzzy flight calls, perhaps indicating birds on active
diurnal migration.
Other sparrows. 3 Spotted Towhees, 9 Chipping Sparrows, 15 Vesper Sparrows, 12
Savannah Sparrows, 6 Song Sparrows, many "Gambel's" and a few "Mountain"
White-crowned Sparrows, 2 Oregon Juncos, and 1 Pink-sided Junco.
Meadowlarks. We tallied 166, but that has to be an undercount, as it seems as
though we were forever putting up flocks of 5-25+ birds. Lots were giving
flight calls, and there was a pretty obvious movement of birds southward, so
they were on diurnal migration. We had nothing definitive for Eastern, but
several birds gave us pause (then flew away or turned around or something), and
Eastern has been recorded out at the Fox Ranch. If you're the sort of person
who loves scanning through flocks for the stray Laughing Gull or Glossy Ibis,
you'd be in hog heaven at the Fox Ranch.
Pine Siskin. 1, flying due west above the river.
Thanks to William Burnidge (Project Director with The Nature Conservancy in
Colorado) and Nathan Andrews (Fox Ranch Manager) for their hospitality and for
their super work on this outstanding birding hotspot in eastern Colorado.
Please note that the Fox Ranch, a working cattle ranch, is private property;
access is by written permission only.
-------------------------------
Ted Floyd
[email protected]
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
-------------------------------
Ted Floyd
Editor, Birding
-------------------------------
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