Hello Cobirders,
I'd like to say a few things about Joyce's comments on nesting herons and egrets in Boulder Co. (and vicinity). Several management organizations including the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, Boulder County Parks and Open Space, Colorado Division of Wildlife and local volunteers (like Joyce :-)) keep tabs on the heronries in the region. Historically, there was a large colony of Great Blue Herons to the east of 95th on Boulder Creek. That heronry has dried up over the last several years and is now down to only a handful of active nests. The City of Boulder (me) checks up on these guys regularly, so although it's private property, someone's out there looking. The new rookery to the west of Walden Ponds is more difficult to assess since it's also on private property, but the Division of Wildlife is working on gaining access. There is a new heronry a bit further down Boulder Creek to the east that Boulder County is monitoring. In the case of Great Egret, they historically nested in the large GBHE colony east of 95th, but that was in its hay-day which has passed. The Colorado Breeding Bird Atlas offers some handy information on this. There might only be one or two other spots in the state where Great Egret breeds. I wonder what the current status of Great Egret is since the atlas is a bit out of date. Snowy Egret has a few definite sites to the north and east of Boulder County. So, the way I see it, a heron or egret can be nesting somewhere way out in Weld County but will still venture quite a distance to forage. This is typical heron and egret behavior. With the heronries in Boulder County watched so closely, I believe we will find any Little Blue/Great/Snowy nests if they are around, but it wouldn't surprise me if they are actually getting down to business far away from here (if at all). Now if we can just find that pesky Green Heron nest at Walden/Sawhill... Christian Nunes [email protected] From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Subject: [cobirds] Little Blue Heron, Boulder Date: Mon, 17 May 2010 07:53:28 -0600 A Little Blue Heron has been reported several times in the Walden/Sawhill area in Boulder this month. I want to encourage any birders who visit the area to look for signs of possible nesting. There is a Great-blue rookery west of Walden in the grove of trees behind the private lake. I do not know of Great-blues would accept Little Blues in the same area. At Marston in Denver, Great-blues and Double-crested Cormorants nest in the same area. There are also many more sightings of Great and Snowy Egrets at Walden/Sawhill during the breeding season so where could they be nesting? Please report any signs of nesting to CoBirds. I am sure that atlasters would be interested. Good Birding, Joyce Takamine Boulder -- 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.com/group/cobirds?hl=en. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_1 -- 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.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
