Bill Kaempfer's post about the trip he and John took to NE CO provids incentive
to post about a similar journey I made on the day before (Friday the 2nd), en
route to Wray and the next-day event at Last Chance, and a visit to Lamar where
I am at present. There were lots of similarities and some differences in the
survey by Bill and John, and mine.
I miscalculated slightly and got to Jumbo before sunrise (not being a morning
person, perhaps the first time I every got up too early). By the time it was
light enough to see birds, the hunters were blasting away, the waterfowl a long
ways off, and the wind blowing like mad. Plus I don't possess the right damn
permit for Prewitt-Jumbo. I moved on.
The town of Sedgwick and the Sedgwick Cemetery had little of note except a
desperate Cedar Waxwing (and high number of Japanese gravestones) at the
cemetery.
At Ovid woods along the creek, both n and s of SR138, were a Red-bellied
Woodpecker, 6 Common Grackles, a Yellow-rumped Warbler, a solitaire, and a
creeper. Wonder if I missed the gnatcatcher?
At the famous "Ground-Dove Spot" on the Platte at Julesburg near I-76, I had a
white-winged junco in a big flock, a blackbird I suspect was a Rusty, and two
flyover Red Crossbills (Type 5?). I zipped over to the Julesburg Cemetery s of
the interstate exit expecting to see it crawling with crossbills, solitaires,
kinglets, and a phainopepla. Nary a single bird! Too much wind, I guess.
Interesting to see that place has a couple cone-laden Douglas-firs. If the
oddly-calling crossbills Bill and John heard were "Douglas-fir Crossbills",
wouldn't those birds, too, have been surprised to find their favorite fare that
far away from the mountains?
About halfway between Julesburg and Holyoke on US385 at the road jog windbreak,
there was a Golden-crowned Kinglet female and a Rough-legged Hawk (my FOS). At
the Holyoke Cemetery were two Brown Creepers, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and a
solitaire. I didn't check anywhere else in town.
The highlight of Holyoke was definitely an overheard discussion at the cafe.
Four farmers argued how to calculate the speed of a wind turbine tip (pi x
d/time), whether these would ever be at risk to break the sound barrier,
whether you'd get fined if the turbine sonic-boomed on your property, and
further involved info on the subject gained from an accountant ("And you let
that guy do your taxes, Washburn?"), the internet (which provided troublesome
metric units), and various other confounding sources. The know-it-all in the
group finally brought the argument back to Phillips County when he asserted
there was no way the tips could possibly be going near the sound barrier
because that was "over 1500 mph" (this caused another argument) and if the tips
were going this fast, you couldn't see them (which you can, don't you know?)
and that it takes 8 seconds for a blade to make one revolution. I laughed so
hard I could barely eat the special. The beets must already be in the pile and
topics of cafe conversation in short supply. To be fair, if I had been with
someone, we'd have been discussing something profound like crossbill call types.
At the Wray fish hatchery/Stalker Fishing Pond were: Hooded Merganser (1),
Red-bellied Woodpecker (snapping flies attracted to moisture at the attack
points of Banded Elm Bark Beetles entering the bark of a Siberian Elm -
awesome!), Killdeer (2), Eastern Bluebirds (8), Mountain Bluebird (1), and the
mandatory solitaire.
At Beecher Island north of Bonny Res, which I had not visited for over 20 years
but which was recommended of late by Steve Mlodinow, there were yet another
Red-bellied Woodpecker (3rd individual at the third location for the day),
Swamp Sparrow, and Harris's Sparrow (2). The number of Tree Sparrows, Song
Sparrows, and juncos here in the grasses along the trickle they call the
Arickaree River was impressive. Wonder what else has lurked in that grass over
the years, and specifically, this autumn?
Both shrikes I saw today were Northerns. I should add that White-breasted
Nuthatches (eastern, as best I could tell by voice), Hairy Woodpeckers (all
eastern), and Downy Woodpeckers (all eastern) were basically at just about
every substantial stop. And it seems to me there are more Brown Creepers out
east this fall. Solitaires are in good numbers. And, as many have noted,
Red-breasted Nuthatches are almost expected everywhere on the plains so far
this fall.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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