Hello, Birders. Hannah and Andrew had a wonderful time in the San Luis Valley these past few days, Friday-Sunday, March 8-10. Lots of great birds, and more on that in a moment, but, first, a comment or two about the splendid 2013 Monte Vista Crane Festival, held this past weekend. The 2013 festival was their thirtieth! They're one of the oldest of all bird festivals. And they're still going strong; one of the festival organizers told me that the event had about 1,100 participants, an impressive total indeed. A few human-interest highlights included:
* Quite a number of young people, age 18 and under, on the Bare-naked Birding tour on Saturday morning. (A soaring Bald Eagle for our very first bird at Bare-naked Birding was a felicitous start to the outing. And it was wild to get 40+ people on a single Brown Creeper; can't do that when they're all fumbling with binoculars...) * All the snowy-headed folks filing into the Friday evening presentation. That feisty snowstorm was pure beauty--and a precursor to 12 straight hours of snow and freezing fog the next day. * The energy in the Ski-Hi auditorium, the main hub for the festival. The place combined elements of a county fair, a food court, a ski resort, and a birding convention. Great fun. * The oohs and aahs Saturday morning at Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge. Picture seeing all of this in one place: several dozen Mountain Bluebirds; a dazzling Prairie Falcon, an elegant Rough-legged Hawk, and an adult Bald Eagle; a bunch of brilliant Cinnamon Teals; and two dozen pronghorns ambling amid a throng of 4,500+ Sandhill Cranes practically within arm's reach of the observation area. Wouldn't you have oohed and aahed? * The spectacle of Mr. Mellow, Greg Thompson, who expertly and calmly presided over an absolutely marvelous weekend. Some avian highlights: * Sandhill Cranes. If you've never witnessed Sandhill Cranes in the San Luis Valley in March, you've never really witnessed Sandhill Cranes. If the folks in Nebraska are reading this, I fully stand by that statement. In The Valley, the cranes are so incredibly close, so vocal, so amorous (and they'll be even more vocal and amorous in the weeks to come), and always with the backdrop of all those snow-capped 14,000-ft. summits. The Sandhills were the very first birds we saw as we drove into Monte Vista on Friday evening, they were the first birds we saw (without even leaving the hotel room) on Saturday morning, they were the first birds we heard when we stepped outside the hotel that morning, and the spectacle at Monte Vista was overwhelming. * Medano-Zapata Ranch (private), Alamosa County. A small group of us visited on Sunday morning, cold and brilliant. For a brief moment, we achieved something you don't experience much these days: absolute silence. Then a Sage Thrasher burst into song, and then a Sage Sparrow, and then several more of both species. We also heard and saw dazzling Mountain Bluebirds, and a fantastic, take-your-breath-away, close-up Prairie Falcon flying right by. Albedo, 1.00; Relative Humidity, 0%; searing beauty, 100%. * Colorado Gators Reptile Park, Alamosa County (fee, and worth it). On a Saturday afternoon visit, we were talking about how the place looks great for an unusual wintering bird, when what should appear but a Wilson's Snipe, rare in the San Luis Valley in winter. The bird seemed to be doing just fine, despite the steadily accumulating snow. Wouldn't you feel fine if you were a snipe, and you'd just spent the winter in a wetland where it's always 87 degrees Fahrenheit? We also saw several Emus and Ostriches, and heard Indian Peafowl. * Fort Garland, Conejos County. On the drive out on Sunday, we saw an avifauna that Henry Ford would have admired: American Crows, Common Ravens, ravenspuhs, crovens, and two Great-tailed Grackles. And nothing else! Thanks to everybody in the San Luis Valley for such a great festival. Ted Floyd [email protected] Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
