Hello, Birders. Bryan Patrick and I were guests this past Sunday-Monday, June 27th-28th, at a private holding in Las Animas County. All observations and tallies are from June 28th unless otherwise indicated. Here's what we found: Gray Vireo. At least 5 widely scattered singing males. Probably more. In junipers, needless to say. Eastern Phoebe. At least 9 adults, including a pair tending a Brown-headed Cowbird. Black Phoebe. 1 adult. I note that Chip Clouse and I saw a Black Phoebe 2 summers ago, in my only other mid-summer excursion to the rugged interior of Las Animas County. I suspect this species has become established along the network of waterways in the hard-to-access interior of the county. Black x Eastern Phoebe. 1 adult looked pretty good for a hybrid. It resembled an Eastern Phoebe, but it was too dark overall above, and it had a mainly black breast. As with pure Black Phoebes, I'm 2 for 2 with apparent hybrids on mid-summer visits to the interior of Las Animas County. With both of these phoebe species in the region, more hybrids can be expected, I believe. Long-billed Curlew. An adult aggressively drove intruders (Bryan and me) away from its territory in the early evening of the 27th. After the bird had accomplished its mission, it settled down with another adult, presumably its mate. It was cool to see all of this play out in an open juniper woodland! How many of us think of Long-billed Curlews as breeders in juniper woodlands? Well, that's Las Animas County for you. Greater Roadrunner. One singing loudly at 2 in the afternoon. It was interesting to hear that song--it's quite beautiful, really--in the middle of the day on a hot day in late June. Ferruginous Hawk. One juvenile in the early evening of the 27th. Rufous-crowned Sparrow. Two singing from the rocky slopes in a canyon.
Wrens! Oh, man. We counted 34 Rock Wrens, 11 Canyon Wrens, and 24 Bewick's Wrens. Looks like this is a new eBird high count for Colorado for Bewick's Wren; and Rock Wren misses the eBird high count by 1. PJ flycatchers. Our tally of 23 Ash-throated Flycatchers is a new eBird high count for Colorado; and we counted 20 Cassin's Kingbirds. Other PJ species. 2 Black-chinned Hummingbirds, 10 Western Scrub-Jays, 1 Mountain Chickadee, 11 Juniper Titmouses, 21 Bushtits, 4 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and 30 Northern Mockingbirds. And where the habitat opened up a bit into grassland: 9 singing Cassin's Sparrows. Down by the "river." 4 Yellow-breasted Chats, 14 Black-headed Grosbeaks, 15 Blue Grosbeaks, and 10 Lesser Goldfinches. A loudly "kekking" adult female Cooper's Hawk was presumably near a nest. Overnight. 4 incessant Common Poorwills, a bunch of displaying Common Nighthawks, and 2 relatively subdued male Great Horned Owls. Scenery. You had to be there... ;) ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Follow Birding magazine on Twitter: http://twitter.com/BirdingMagazine ------------------------------- _________________________________________________________________ The New Busy is not the old 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_3 -- 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.
