Today I drove down to Otero County to enjoy a very unusually cool day. I ran into a few brief rain showers and intermittent sprinkles which didn't interfere with birding much. I was surprised to find a flock of 8 dowitchers loafing at a modified playa in Otero County. They were distant so I will call them Dowitcher species.
I checked oaut Lake Holbrook which is still overflowing with water. As I posted earlier, water had been moved down from the high mountain reservoirs earlier this year to make room for run-off and the water we import from the west slope. With the high temps last week causing high run-off flows, more water has been moved from the Pueblo Res to these downstream reservoirs for flood control purposes. So I suspect most of these eastern plains reservoirs are still very full. I only saw one Am White Pelican and distant waterfowl on the lake and there was no shoreline whatsoever. While looking for Burrowing Owls along county roads I spotted 2 Long-billed Curlews flying nearby. I watched and photographed them for several minutes then was surprised to see this apparent pair walking with what looked like a young curlew. Unfortunately they were several hundred feet away and kept disappearing behind a small hill so I didn't get any photos of the young bird that was about 2/3 rds the size of the adults. I only saw the young bird walking then the two adults took off away from the road giving their distinctive calls. I thought they might to calling to the young bird to follow them as they circled around a couple of times before I lost sight of them in the distance, but I never saw the young bird fly. I don't know if the young bird was old enough to fly long distances or whether it might have been born in the nearby shortgrass prairie. I drove nearby roads looking unsuccessfully for them then when I returned to the area where I first saw them I found 4 apparent adult Long-billed Curlews foraging in some tall grass. I didn't see the young bird again. I have posted photos of the adults on my BirdsAndNature <http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com> blog. I also posted a short video yesterday of one of the Pinyon Jays I found last week-end in Salida; in the background you can hear the flock giving their distinctive calls. I spent a lot of time looking for, and at,the curlews so didn't have time to check out the other lakes. I did find 2 Burrowing Owls and will post their photos tomorrow. SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.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.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
