This weekend was the first annual Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory Ranch Trip which was auctioned off last August at the 2010 RMBO picnic.
Led by Seth Gallagher, Christine Sibona and I birded 6 counties in SE Colorado. Saturday we visited 2 Lesser-prairie Chicken leks in Prowers County. We saw multiple birds but thanks to a pair of Golden Eagles at the first lek, the birds weren’t too interested in dancing. Next we hit Thurston Reservoir which had a good variety including: Great Blue Heron American White Pelican Hundreds of American Coots and Gadwalls Double-crested Cormorant Marsh Wren (at least 2 birds counter singing) Pie-billed Grebe Western Grebe American Wigeon Northern Pintail Ring-necked Duck Ruddy Duck Ross’s and Snow Geese- 2 Snow’s with 18 Ross’s! Blue and Green-winged Teal Wilson’s Snipe Northern Shoveler Mallard Common Merganser Bufflehead Other highlights along the way included: Mountain Plover- FOS (multiple birds in Prower’s county, no color-bands) Burrowing Owl- FOS (1 pair in Prower’s County) Swainson’s Hawk- FOS Ferruginous Hawk- 1 dark Morph Chihuahuan Raven Bald Eagle- pair still incubating north of Hwy 50 on the Arkansas River Next we visited Lamar community college which was active but a little early for migrants: Downy and Hairy Woodpecker Song Sparrow Lincoln’s Sparrow- FOS White-crowned Sparrow House Finch Cooper’s Hawk American Goldfinch Pine Siskin Myrtle Warbler- FOS Blue Jay Townsend’s Solitaire- singing birds in Las Animas county Barn Swallow- FOS Yesterday we visited Otero, Las Animas and Pueblo counties. Highlights included: Loggerhead Shrike- FOS Say’s Pheobe- FOS Great Horned Owl- nesting pair Mountain Bluebird- dozens of birds moving through Canyon Towhee- several pairs with singing birds Rufous-Crowned Sparrow- 1 pair Scaled Quail Sage Thrasher- FOS (lots of birds moving through) In total we had about 60 species. Join us at the 2011 RMBO picnic for a chance to win next year’s ranch trip. Jora Rehm-Lorber Biologist- Colorado and Utah projects Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory 230 Cherry St. Suite 150 Fort Collins, CO 80521 970-482-1707 ext. 27 www.rmbo.org -- 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.
