NOTE: THERE ARE NO NEW RARE BIRD REPORTS IN THE NOTE THAT FOLLOWS. A late note regarding Last Chance (Washington, although the place should really be in its own county (Last County?)) yesterday 10/23. The place was very quiet. The only birds of note were Townsend's Solitaire (2), Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, and lots of robins dropping in.
Regarding Lamar, my total number for 4 full days of birding an area roughly the size of a CBC circle centered on downtown Lamar from 10/19 thru 10/22 was 96 species, with an additional one (Ring-necked Pheasant) found dead. Passerine migration seemed mostly over, and what there was left of it, slow. Most of the winter species are "in". Some of the semi-hardy species linger and wait to make their decision about the upcoming months. Huge numbers of robins are definitely on the move. About the only misses likely present were things like Eastern Screech-Owl (haven't seen or heard one down there for years), lingering Barn Owl, maybe a newly-arrived Brown Creeper, sapsuckers (couldn't believe the tally doesn't include either Yellow-bellied or Red-naped, although the trees in general down there are VERY dry and unsappy), no shorebirds (not even a Killdeer) except for two Wilson's Snipe shown by a flyover Northern Harrier at Thurston, lingering Lark Bunting, McCown's and/or Lapland Longspur, Curve-billed Thrasher setting up shop in some gnarly place for the winter, wrens (only species detected were a few Marsh at Thurston Res), straggler Turkey Vulture, "blue-winged" Teal, unexpected warbler (Black-throated Green?), unexpected vireo (Blue-headed?), tanager (all in Pueblo?), Varied Thrush?, Red Fox Sparrow?, Wood Thrush?, this is getting more into the "wish" category as opposed to "miss" category. A summary of noteworthy detected species (all previously reported): Merlin (2), White-winged Dove (1), Red-bellied Woodpecker (2-3, tough to tell how many are really there, they move around so much), Loggerhead Shrike (1), Northern Shrike FOS (1), Plumbeous Vireo (1), Western Scrub-Jay (1), Golden-crowned Kinglet FOS (1), Eastern Bluebird (several), Mountain Chickadee (2 for sure, maybe more), Nashville Warbler (2-3), Townsend's Warbler (1), Field Sparrow (3, one each at three different locations), Swamp Sparrow FOS (1), White-throated Sparrow (at least 4), Golden-crowned Sparrow (1, I am now calling this individual with a dark-gray-black bill (with both mandibles yellowish at their bases) a "first-winter" based on a somewhat similar photo in the new Stokes guide), and Northern Cardinal (Brandon just might be right about there being as many as 6 (3 adults and 3 kids from this summer?) at LCC). Decipherable feeding activity seemed centered around a few key resources: 1) hackberry psyllids (especially Yellow-rumped Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets); 2) Virginia Creeper berries (all three mimic thrushes, cardinal, flicker, Hermit Thrush, robin, probably others); 3) Russian-olive fruits (flicker, solitaire, robin, cardinal, Yellow-rumped Warbler (especially fallen pulp on the ground); 4) field crickets (big and black ) and various grasshoppers (abundant!!!! and being easily found and eaten my many species of birds including Western Scrub-Jay (crickets) and crows (flock of 2000+ west of town just walking in fallow fields and nearby cut alfalfa looking like people who don't like to cook on Thanksgiving at a restaurant buffet); 5) unidentified species of aphid or adelgid (flying everywhere on warm days at LCC (warblers, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, maybe sparrows) at LCC Woods (north end); and 6) juniper berries (robin, solitaire, flicker, Mountain Chickadee (not sure if they were after the berries or some insect (aphids and/or lacewings?) they were finding, but definitely showed a preference for the junipers scattered around LCC Woods and in the Willow Valley subdivision to the northeast). Lastly, there are some plant changes at the north end of LCC that seem noteworthy. Probably due to the flooding a few years back, Western Soapberry (Sapindus drummondi) and "wolfberry" (Lycium barbarum) shrubs are showing up in many places where I've not noticed them before. There has been a big soapberry (native to the canyons of southeastern CO) thicket at the southwest corner of the woods (up in the dry sand sage southeast of the Wellness Center) for decades that is probably the source of the soapberry seeds. Who knows where the wolfberry (a Eurasian exotic) came from but they now are populating and noticeably spreading within the Golden Currant thicket that forms the Plains Cottonwood understory at the north end. I don't know if either of these plants has any utility to birds but it will be interesting to watch. Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- 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.
