I stopped by Holcim Wetlands around 6 pm tonight on my way back from Pueblo and found Evergreen birder Scott Dieni already looking for the Least Bittern family. Scott said he had been there for about an hour and had not seen any Least Bitterns but was hearing calls that I confirmed were the 'cooing' calls of that species. Over the next hour and a half we heard the Least Bitterns vocalizing with these 'cooing' calls often. It was my impression that some of these calls were more guttural sounding than others and some more mellow sounding, possibly different by adult versus young???
At about 6:30 pm a non-male Least Bittern flew to the west side of the wetlands from some unknown location away from the area where we were hearing the calls and where Doug Kibbe and I both saw Least Bittern in the last two days. About 10 minutes or so it flew back to the east and landed in the large section of cattails in the middle of the wetlands far from the area where the others had been seen. This bird was distant so other than noting that it did not have a dark crown and back like adult males and that the buffy wing patches were evident in flight, we did not note other field marks (or absence of field such as the white fuzzy feathering that the fledglings I photographed yesterday had) so can only say it was a non-male bird. We did not see this bird again. Scott made a rhetorical comment about having more than one nesting pair here--I responded that this is not out of the question as the large cattail areas could hide many nesting pairs. Around 7 pm I spotted a male Least Bittern fly in to the eastern edge of the cattail patch we had been watching and it landed near a second Least Bittern that was partially obscured by cattails so age and sex were not evident. Scott and I both observed the second Least Bittern swallowing some largish (for their size) prey. Then the adult male bird flew up and to the west side of the cattail patch we were watching--it disappeared in there. A little later I saw the second Least Bittern scurry (it splashed water up as it ran??) across a small section of water into the large area of cattails we were watching. I also spotted mostly obscured Least Bitterns in the middle of cattails several times for short periods of time but could not make out sex or age field marks. We left around 7:30 as it got dark and the insects began swarming. I didn't take any photos tonight. I just added a photo to my Birds and Nature <http://birdsandnature.blogspot.com/> blog that I took yesterday that I did not crop so you can get a realistic idea of where these birds were located in the cattails. When birders go out to look for this family of Least Bitterns it would be helpful if you would note about what time you see them and about where they were located. SeEtta Moss Canon City Personal blog @ http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com<http://birdsandnature.blogspot.com/> Now blogging for *Birds and Blooms *magazine @ Birds and Blooms blog southcentral/ <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 cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
