On our Atlas blockbuster last weekend, 14 field workers in four
parties worked in 16 blocks. Plains blocks in the Arriba/Burlington area
usually have 20-30 species, but each one provided its own special reward.
Species detected included:
Dickcissel - in 6 blocks; again this year, good numbers have arrived on the
prairie.
Lark Buntings - dozens per block, performing their spectacular song feats
Grasshopper Sparrow - in almost every block
McCown's Longspur - only one block, but a colony of 8-10 larking males (wow!)
Cassin's Sparrow - not many, not much suitable habitat
Mountain Plover - only one bird
Burrowing Owl - 4 blocks
Blue Grosbeak - 2 blocks
Barn Owl - 2 blocks.
On Friday Urling and I stumbled onto a section of Yellow Sweet
Clover, interspersed with 150 bales of last year's clover-hay. Dozens of birds,
using the bales for perches, sang vigorously: territorial Dickcissels, Horned
Larks, Grasshopper Sparrows, Lark Buntings, meadowlarks, and Red-winged
Blackbirds. Also on hay bales, cowbirds. Every other hay bale seemed to have a
bird on it. *
On Saturday our party of six stopped at a decadent alfalfa field
(half alfalfa and half some other plant that we can't identify) and marveled at
dozens of larking Lark Buntings plus 3-4 Dickcissels. Spectacular. Breathtaking.
Sunday, in off-and-on misting rain, we worked the Bonny Res. N.
block. Singing Orchard Orioles must have numbered 25-30. Five-six noisy
Yellow-billed Cuckoos. Eight Red-headed Woodpeckers. A pair of Blue Grosbeaks.
A colony of five Dickcissels. A dozen or so Warbling Vireos, presumably the
eastern race, and two pairs of White-breasted Nuthatches, also eastern. We saw
(too briefly) one Northern Cardinal and one (I think) Great Crested Flycatcher
(in the same place that I saw one in Atlas I).
Francis Commercon described the four blocks that he and his mother,
Joyce, sampled:
"On Friday night we were out looking for Nighthawks, but we were
running from two massive thunderstorms as well. The lightning was horrifying,
and Severe weather and Tornado warnings on the radio made us fear for our tiny
tent back at the campground. Once we got lost near our Vona block, and saw a
group of tornado chasers, who had discovered a funnel cloud heading our way!
"Despite the weather, the next day yielded Ring-necked Pheasants, a
Greater Prairie-Chicken and her fledglings, Northern Bobwhite, Indigo Bunting,
and Orchard Oriole, all of which were life birds to me. In my Stratton Block we
discovered a Black Tern."
If you want to find some of the Bonny birds, I will gladly provide
directions, provided that you promise to share your observations in order to
supplement the Atlas data that we have so far.
Hugh Kingery
PS - as some of you know, I keep a very important List of
Birds-Seen-on-Haystacks. Now in its 41st year, my list has 47 species on it,
with the addition of three species on Saturday.
--
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.
