Hello Again,
This morning, just before 5am, 6 of us followed Ted Floyd from the Teller Farms parking lot and walked briskly 2 miles to the south. After we returned, circa 8am, I headed north for a similar distance. BALTIMORE ORIOLE: Adult female (though I guess a first year male can be similar). Take the path north through the farm fields until there are houses on your left. Just about where the houses end, the trail bends sharply right. Before turning right, if you look to your left, there is a row quite tall cottonwoods (I must say, could be some variety of cultivated poplar, I suppose). Anyway, the oriole was seen perched in those trees. As I was approaching the trees, I saw the oriole flying in from the north (probably NNE). I had an excellent look at its topside as it flew past and then up into the trees. The upperparts (including tail) were a fairly uniform dirty orange... it is hard to describe the color, but it is a color that is, perhaps, unique to Baltimore Oriole. While in the trees, I was able to see the moderately bright orange underparts from throat to undertail coverts, brightest on chest and upper belly. I was unable to see the face well at all, but there was no obvious black (as in, large patch). As I was studying the bird, hoping its head would come out from behind the leaves, several people yelling at their multiple off-leash dogs (splashing in creek, running into field with Sav Sparrows) caused the bird to fly... and it flew... quite far to the NW. No, I am NOT trying to start a discussion about off-leash dogs... such only leads to on-line acrimony. BOBOLINK: One male singing/skylarking from first field on right. As you leave farm buildings, there is a wet area owned by a mob of grackles. I walked past that, turned right with trail, and about halfway along that straight stretch (heading essentially west) was where I saw/heard the Bobolink to my right, 100 or so feet out in the field. There are also a couple Sav Sparrows in the vicinity. In the wee hours, we headed north. The grasslands past the ponds held 4 singing CASSIN'S SPARROWS and 9 Grasshopper Sparrows that we detected. As the trail past the ponds, on the way back (so around 7:30 or a bit earlier), there was an imm male AMERICAN REDSTART singing intermittently, but on the move, working its way south fairly quickly through the trees and brush. At the stream-crossing, between the grassy area and the pond area, there was a Black-chinned Hummingbird and a "Traill's" Flycatcher, presumably a Willow. A non-bird highlight was on the trail, as we were headed back south to the parking lot, just after crossing Valmont... a short-tailed tiny shrew that appears to have been a Least Shrew. Many thanks to Ted for being a good leader and teacher. Best Wishes and Good Cheer Steven Mlodinow Longmont, CO -- 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.
