This past weekend I had the pleasure of leading a great group of folks on a field trip for the Colorado Field Ornithologists and the Boulder Bird Club to NE Colorado along the South Platte River. This is a trip that I have been leading for the past dozen or so years, so experience tells me that not too much was unusual, but that all involved had a superb time.
On Saturday we arrived at our first birding stop along US 6 just outside the Prewitt Reservoir area in Washington County at about 8:30. This little wetland area had several duck species, a few shorebirds including a Solitary Sandpiper and an immature Black-crowned Night Heron. Just before we turned into Prewitt, Tom McConnell stopped the cars in order to claim a road kill that he saw. It was a very fresh Greater Prairie Chicken that now is in my freezer. (No, not for an upcoming Bar-B-Que-it's there until I have the opportunity to fill out the necessary paperwork to send it off to the CU Museum of Natural History!) At Prewitt we had a somewhat but not totally different experience than that of other visitors reporting from the last few days. At the west inlet canal the only birds of note were a small family group of Warbling Vireos who were vocalizing with words not quite like those of the front range foothills. The western waterline at Prewitt had a nice amount of close in shore that allowed for great viewing of Baird's, Least and Western Sandpipers, a couple of Semi-palmated Sandpipers and a few Lesser Yellowlegs. A small group of terns included Common and Black only. Below the Prewitt dam we had lots of Red-headed Woodpeckers, some Wilson's and one Townsend's mixed in with the mainly Yellow Warblers. Here let me second what Meredith McBurney said about the banding experience at Barr Lake of late-so far there seem to be a lot more breeding birds than migrants. Moving on to Sterling, we stopped at my favorite spot for Mississippi Kites in this their most northwesterly breeding spot, Cheairs Park. There were at least 8 flying way over head including one or more immatures. After a short rest at out motels, we went on to North Sterling State Park. The shorebirds there were good, but not over abundant. On the distant shore we were able to make out a distinct Caspian Tern. Next we visited a wooded grove in the park where we are always able to find abundant insects and almost always able to find a family of post nesting Barn Owls. There were at least six present this year. I cut through to the back of the grove in order to possible flush the owls back the other way to let the party all get good looks and in doing so I found several more really good passerines including a family of Orchard Orioles, a beautiful male Baltimore Oriole and a bright yellow empid that I called out as a Cordy (but could it have been a Yellow-bellied given the other reports of the weekend?) But as I was calling out all of these birds, I realized I was talking to myself (and the Orioles). The rest of the group retreated in the face of a few measly mosquitoes! Wimps! Dinner was at Gallagher's River City Grill which those of you who have birded with me in Sterling will recognize as my favorite. This morning we set off at 6:30 (after hearing Kay McConnell bless the Sterling Super-8 as the worst motel in the world-I stay at the Comfort Inn!) for Tamarack. The west side was full of birds we couldn't see, but included about six Bell's Vireos that kept going into the kitchen to get us a beer. We crossed back to the east side, stops 6 and 7. Stop 6 was terrific and we spent a lot of time wandering around the poison ivy which allowed us to pick up a Great-Crested Flycatcher, a pair of Northern Cardinals and a pair of Baltimore Orioles and a small phalanx of Red-headed Woodpeckers. Stop 7 was bird less, as Tamarack Pond. Maybe I was just too tired by that time. We went on into Red Lion where "White Ibis" Ponds had more than 100 ibis that weren't white, a Hooded Merganser and families of about 20 Pied-billed Grebes. The usual Red Lion ponds were too dry for the tastes of all except a handful of Killdeers. The Bell's Vireo hedge was full of....Bell's Vireos-all in all we had about a dozen on the trip. And there were several Solitary Sandpipers. I should point out that this species was any think but solitary. With about 25 or so present in 8 to 10 different stops they were one of our most numerous shorebird species. The west bay of Jumbo was good shorebirding including a couple of American Avocets lots of peeps and a large number of Stilt Sandpipers and a Snow Goose. At the mid-point point we had three tern species including our only Forster's of the four tern trip. The Jumbo Campground had a family of Eastern Bluebirds. We then went on to Haxtun to bring an end to the trip. Haxtun Park had only Yellow Warblers and Western Wood Pewees this time around, but there were a few Chimney Swifts overhead. That brought an end to our hot time (98 on Saturday and already 94 on Sunday at 1:30) with a trip list of 109. Bill Kaempfer Boulder -- 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.
