I birded lakes, playas, canals and grasslands roughly from Lake Cheraw to Ordway yesterday as well as five days before. I ran into west slope birders Andrea Robinsong and Larry Arnold on 7-29
Lake Cheraw: On 7-29 I saw an adult Snowy Plover with 2 very small (like cotton balls on two toothpicks) chicks. Yesterday I found 2 apparent juvenile Snowy Plovers but these were grown much beyond the cottonball stage. Hundreds of Wilson's Phalaropes both times, almost a hundred Black Terns, 2+Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Black-necked Stilts, Baird's Sandpiper Lake Holbrook: on 7-29 I heard then saw a Yellow-billed Cuckoo-that was a surprise as the habitat is generally in poor shape due to uncontrolled, off-road ATV use but high water levels have improved the vegetation and especially the trees. As this reservoir has record amounts of water it is being highly used for recreation including motor boats and water skiing (on this relatively small body of water). As I expected I could not relocate the cuckoo yesterday and expected it was just using this area for migration habitat. Due to the heavy and intense recreation use there were few birds- a few Aechmorphorus grebes, 1 cormorant, just Black Terns flying around the lake (not even one pelican). I have been told that a lot of this water will be moved of the lake (into farm fields) soon so hopefully there will be some mudflats (virtually no shore/mudflats now) when shorebird migration cranks up. Lake Meredith--Yesterday I found early Sanderlings working the small amount of shoreline (water level is dropping). I have posted photos of them on my BirdsAndNature <http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com> blog. I also saw 2 Baird's Sandpipers , 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, lots of distant white-headed gulls and a Great Blue Heron-that's all I could see even in my scope Lake Henry-Water level still high here with virtually no shoreline and almost no birds--a few distant Aechmorporus grebes (no evidence of nesting tho there is above water vegetation where they have nested in past) and white-headed gulls Ordway Stockyards' Effluent ponds--American Avocet, Black-necked Stilts, Franklin's Gulls (most on 7-29), white-headed gulls, Baird's Sandpipers, Lesser and 1 Greater Yellowlegs. On 7-29 there were 2 Short-billed Dowitchers (none seen yesterday) Other areas in northern Otero and Crowley counties: Red-headed Woodpeckers--photos uploaded to my blog Scaled Quail-parent's with fledglings--will upload photos to blog soon Burrowing Owls-several adults including two with one fledgling-photos to blog soon Lark Buntings--one large flock of close to 50 and several smaller flocks, mostly males, either gathering for or beginning migration--photo uploaded to blog Chipping Sparrows--hundreds everywhere Swainson's Hawk--7-8 each trip (still fewer per mile than near Salida) SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com Now blogging for Birds and Blooms magazine at BirdsAndBlooms blog<http://birdsandbloomsblog.com/category/southcentral/> -- 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.
