Hello, Birders. Andrew and I explored Park County earlier today, Saturday, June 18th.
We started out in the Buffalo Peaks campground of Pike National Forest, where we got our wake-up call from booming and buzzing Common Nighthawks. The two dominant voices in the dawn chorus were Olive-sided Flycatcher and Hermit Thrush; I thought that was a cool combo. Other birds in the campground were typical for the habitat and elevation: Williamson's Sapsucker, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Cassin's Finch, Type 2 Red Crossbill, etc. Next was Antero Reservoir, which was wild. No rarities, but lots of stuff hugely inconsistent with what's shown for the 1st Colorado Breeding Birds Atlas. Here are some highlights: at least 32 adult Lesser Scaups and smaller but nonetheless decent numbers of various other duck species (Gadwall, American Wigeon, Blue-winged and Cinnamon teals, Common Merganser, Ruddy Duck); 135 Eared Grebes; 825+ American White Pelicans; 1 Snowy Egret; 2 White-faced Ibises; 77 adult American Avocets, including many birds sitting on nests; a tight flock of 8 adult female Wilson's Phalaropes, probably early migrants; at least 14 Franklin's Gulls, including birds sitting in the wet grass as if tending nests; and many California and Ring-billed Gulls. We didn't pay much attention to the passerines but there were divers swallows and icterids, plus a few Rock Wrens and Mountain Bluebirds. Cool place. Anybody paying attention to its colonial waterbirds? >From Antero, we headed north to High Creek Fen, a private holding of The >Nature Conservancy. The fen itself was fascinating, although rather birdless; >the only breeders out in the fen proper were Savannah Sparrows. There was a >terrific showing of the beautiful nymphalid butterfly Erebia epipsodea. A little ways north of Fairplay we saw a pronghorn with two newborns; like, born within the past hour or so, I would say. The pondlet at Kenosha Pass had a pair of Ring-necked Ducks and a pair of Green-winged Teal. At Webster, we saw a Blue Jay, a fair ways "inland," if you catch my drift, for that species. And then at Shawnee we waited for well over two hours for a wrecked King Soopers semi to be pulled out of the Platte River. ------------------------------- Ted Floyd Editor, Birding Blog: http://tinyurl.com/4n6qswt Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/2ejzlzv Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/2wkvwxs ------------------------------- -- 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.
