>From 7-noon on May 11 about 10 folks visited the Laramie Foothills/Phantom >Canyon Preserve property managed by TNC in conjunction with private landowners >north of Fort Collins (Larimer). Yes, it was cold (hovering a few degrees on >either side of 40, I would guess) but when people drive long distances and get >up at uncivilized hours of the morning, a field trip must go on, right?
This is an annual TNC hike to the property just south and west of Virginia Dale off US287, which includes a magnificent piece of the North Fork of the Poudre River watershed. Our bird diversity this morning was suppressed, as was all bird activity (especially singing and insect foraging), due to the temps, but we did our best. The entire list follows, with highlight in caps: Canada Goose (1 on the river) Common Merganser (1 pair flying down the river, just like every year, this year they were going w to e) Turkey Vulture (1 vainly looking for a thermal, or waiting for one of us to die of hypothermia) Golden Eagle (2 soaring and probably one of this pair later seen perched on a rock outcrop near traditional nests) American Kestrel (1) Ring-billed Gull (1 headed for Halligan Res) Rock Pigeon (several acting like real pigeons nesting among the rock cliffs) Mourning Dove (1 or 2) Broad-tailed Hummingbird (a few males heard buzzing past, probably trying to remember how to activate torpor) Northern Flicker (2) CASSIN'S KINGBIRD (1, among the grass and shrubs up on the prairie, perhaps a new species for the Phantom Canyon list!) Plumbeous Vireo (FOY for me, heard down in the riparian area along the river) Common Raven (3) Horned Lark (several near the entry gate along US287) Violet-green Swallow (only a few noted - usually this is one of the more prominent species, the ones we did see were smartly moving south) Northern Rough-winged Swallow (few, also flying steadily south) Rock Wren (heard briefly, usually conspicuous at this site) American Robin (4) Virginia's Warbler? (heard briefly, I think, usually present from mid-May thru the breeding season at this site) Yellow Warbler (at least 3, some singing) Yellow-rumped Warbler (1) Green-tailed Towhee (only 1, usually a conspicuous species) Spotted Towhee (at least 6-8, the dominant bird today among the shrubs) Chipping Sparrow (2 for sure, maybe as many as 10 if the sparrows too distant to ID were this taxon) Brewer's Sparrow (2) Vesper Sparrow (2 near the entrance off 287, usually abundant and conspicuous) Song Sparrow (1 heard down by the river) Western Meadowlark (2, probably more) Brown-headed Cowbird (3) American Goldfinch Total of 30 species Notable misses today (maybe because we were a tad early, mostly probably the weather): White-throated Swift, Lazuli Bunting, Western Tanager, Yellow-breasted Chat, Cordilleran Flycatcher, Cedar Waxwing, American Dipper, Red-tailed Hawk, Lark Sparrow, Canyon Wren, Great Blue Heron, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Say's Phoebe. Thanks for Brittany Mendelsohn, TNC intern with a great smile, for being our gracious host. 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.
