Thanks to Rudi Nuissl for posting his observation of American Golden Plover at the playa that straddles Weld County Road 75 between Roads 100 and 102, all of which are a few miles north of Crow Valley Campground, north of Murphy's Pasture in Weld County.
Joe Himmel told me that he has been visiting this playa for decades during the infrequent times it holds water. There is a lot of water in it now after a four inch July rain, according to the the Olivers, who are ranchers who own part of that acreage. They were very friendly and welcoming to the birders scoping it this morning. Other ranchers own parts of that wetland, including the Yates and Boyds. Mr. Risner also lives near there. I asked if that water body had a name and one guy said, "Of course it doesn't have a name, it's never there!" (He had only recently moved in and was surprised at its sudden appearance after the rain). Well, it's there now. The Olivers call it the BYO Playa, based on the initials of the 3 owners. RMBO has done some work with these ranchers, as part of their Stewardship division. This morning, I broke off from Joey Kellner's estimable party of birders who were checking out Crow Valley, unable to contain my excitement. (What else is new?). After my initial astonishment at seeing such a big lake, marked by only a tiny dot on the map, I saw two distant Pluvialis Plovers, which disappeared during the Northern Harrier fly-by. Four Pluvialis plovers then appeared on the southeast edge of the water body, allowing close study & lousy photographs. I was soon joined by Rachel Hopper, and we saw several field marks suggesting American Golden Plover (juvy) including wing tips extending beyond the tail, dark crown, relatively small bill and relatively slender profile (the smaller AGPL (145 g) is outweighed by the chunkier BBPL, (240 g), Sibley. We were confident that none of them was a Pacific Golden-Plover. Before long they seemed to disappear before our eyes and reappear on the north side. From there 4 or 5 took flight and we then saw that one had the classic dark "wing-pits" and white rump of a Black-bellied Plover. When they obligingly flew overhead, we saw that 3 or 4 others had no such marks and were clearly AGPLs. Joey's group joined us as did Steve Mlodinoff. More scanning, study and photos. By the time we were done, I think that we had seen 5 AGPL's but did not clearly see the BBPL again. There were several Pectoral Sandpipers, Yellowlegs, at least 2 Long-billed Dowitchers (very scarce this fall), lots of Baird's and other shorebirds. American Pipits and McCown's Longspurs populated the distant west shore; finally one longspur landed on a fence post near the road. It will be interesting to check the BYO Playa as the migration continues to unfold. What could turn up? More plovers? The "long-billed" shorebirds? Buffy? Do Tattlers ever Wander? Joe Roller, Denver -- 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.
