Cade Cropper and I opted for quality over quantity yesterday (2/28/2012).
On our way from Loveland to the Morrison Hogback e of Red Rocks Park, we first
stopped at a private residence south of Loveland to view an overwintering
CHIPPING SPARROW. This bird was first found by the residents prior to the
Loveland CBC and was verified/tallied on Count Day. This is, indeed, a rare
species for winter in CO and looked like the winter adult depicted in Sibley.
Nice job to Sean and Megan on the ID. We thank the Walters for their
hospitality.
Once west of Denver, we went to the normal GREATER ROADRUNNER place basically
east of the e entrance to Red Rocks Park a few hundred yards up the hill east
of Jefferson CR93 (= SR26), to try for what has to be the most
observed/publicized/photographed roadrunner in the history of CO. We were just
below the top of the hogback, where the sign discusses the mystery concretion
and where the road makes a rather sharp turn to the north and goes downhill.
We got there about 10:15am and searched in vain for about an hour. The nice
dinosaur tour bus lady reminded us the bird had also been seen recently on the
east side of the hogback, so we walked up the road, around the corner, and down
the road to a point just uphill from the wood-encased portapotty on the west
side of the pavement. Cade spotted the roadrunner foraging right beside the
west side of the road. This point of discovery was very near where a
hiking/biking trail starts west up the hogback just north of the portapotty.
Also in the vicinity is a sign discussing "ripple rock" and just downhill is
milepost 2. Soon after, the roadrunner did what seemed very natural for it -
it ran across the road. I did not notice whether it was superstitious and
jumped over the painted lines and cracks, or stepped on them. It went past the
guardrail a short distance down the east-facing slope on the east side of the
road (fairly close to a Gambel Oak, which has to be one of the northernmost
natural individuals of this tree in CO), foraged repeatedly on small arthropods
(photos obtained of the bird, but not its food), then made a big glide-flight
eastward toward 470 down to the bottom of the hill. There it foraged in a
similar manner in an open area of snow-flattened grass, rocks, and scattered
rabbitbrush-Opuntia near a big wide-crowned Ponderosa Pine. This area is just
uphill from the abandoned, southernmost part of Rooney Road.
Joe Roller invited me down to this site on 23January2012 to attempt to figure
out what this bird is eating. On that date I was largely unsuccessful at
finding anything that could be responsible for sustaining this bird. The only
insect I saw in any kind of abundance was a large (1/4-inch long) dark
leafhopper in the genus Cuerna. There was also a second species of leafhopper
that was quite a bit smaller and not as plentiful as the bigger one. Others
have reported seeing the bird capture and eat what they thought to be
"angleworms" (earthworms) and "grasshoppers". Today, in response to seeing the
bird "score" with regularity at the bottom the hill near abandoned Rooney Road,
we decided to investigate further. We eventually found a way to drive into
Rooney Ranch and obtained permission from a landowner to drive to the south end
of Rooney Road. This apparently does NOT require permission, even though the
sign just north of Rooney Ranch appears threatening ("No Trespassing - Private
Road"). We poked around in the same patch of bare ground near the ponderosa
pine where the roadrunner had done well an hour earlier. On, and among, the
grass we found lots of the Cuerna leafhoppers and a few very immature, small
grasshoppers. Under flat surface rocks we found one large earthworm, one small
earthworm, a few orange ichneumonid wasps, one black field cricket, a colony of
tiny black ants, a cutworm larva, and a European earwig. Even if this
roadrunner caught every leafhopper and grasshopper on that hill, and somehow
found a way to flip over 2-pound rocks, no way this fare is fueling such a big
bird thru the winter in northern Colorado. In Southeastern CO in winter,
roadrunners are well-known for adopting ranch buildings and farmyards for the
winter, for poaching domestic animal food (particularly dog food), and hanging
out for warmth on security lights. One, I was told, even habituated to being
fed little balls of hamburger meat and tap on patio door windows when this
wasn't being provided "on schedule"! Cutting to the chase, this Morrison bird
has a culinary secret we don't know. Some of us speculated it might be going
down to the ranch west of the hogback west of CR93 just north of the east
entrance to Red Rocks Park. For what it's worth, Cade and I wondered today if
maybe Rooney Ranch on the east side of the hogback isn't the place it goes for
serious eating/roosting. I now think (the term is "swag") the hogback is just
a snackbar, sunning spa, and otherwise daytime hangout. Or maybe it's a travel
corridor between two ranch hangouts. When Joey Kellner spotted the bird on the
west side of the hogback in late afternoon of 23Jan, it came from sw of the
road, crossed the road going north, and went up the hogback (as if heading for
a roost area on the ridge of the hogback, or perhaps continued over it to the
east side).
Lastly, in one of the yards around the old Rooney Ranch rock buildings, we
observed a male Spotted Towhee.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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