COBirds, There are currently 2 RED-NECKED PHALAROPE at the west end of Cottonwood Marsh at Walden Ponds - one a gorgeous breeding male.
Good luck! Peter Burke Boulder >From Peter's iPhone On May 3, 2013, at 2:42 PM, Norm Lewis <[email protected]> wrote: > In light of some of the "odd" reports showing up on the list today, I thought > I'd add a few highlights (and oddities) from my Denver Museum monthly birding > outing yesterday. We followed a route that took us from Denver to the > experimental station property north of Ault, east through the western Pawnee > to the Adams and Bunker Reservoir, south to Crow Valley, down Road 392 to > Kersey and Road 59 Pond, west to Loloff and Lower Latham, and finally > concluding at Beebe Draw. Like some of the previous reports, our results > were notable not so much because of species but rather assemblages. Here are > some highlights: > > Western Pawnee: we had a chilly start and the roads were snow-covered and > icy. Open patches of ground produced a few great looks at both longspurs and > tons of horned larks. As we worked our way east it became clear that the > Bird of the Day would be loggerhead shrike- we encountered them everywhere, > sometimes in small flocks (a situation that I have never experienced before). > Somewhere around thirty I lost count. Very encouraging in light of the > declining status of this bird. The next "flocker" was kestrel- we saw dozens > of them in groups of as many as nine. Again, pretty unusual for this bird. > Next came Swainson's hawk. Since I ran this trip a couple of weeks earlier > than usual this year due to tour obligations, I don't know how these birds > normally complete their migration- do they "kettle" north (as they do in the > fall) and then disperse for breeding? We saw groups of as many as ten > hanging together. > > Crow Valley: migrants were virtually absent and trees were not even beginning > to leaf out. Migrants limited to three orange-crowned warblers, though we > managed a sharp-shinned hawk and a number of birds behaving very amorously, > including blue jays, downy woodpeckers, common grackles and few other of the > usual suspects. > > On the trek down to Kersey we turned up a mountain plover and a nice variety > of raptors- bald eagle, Swainson's and red-tails, furrug, and more kestrels > and shrikes. > > Road 59 Pond: was infested with birds- tons of ducks (mostly dabblers with > some lesser scaup and bufflehead mixed in. Great-tailed grackles seem to be > displacing some of the yellow-headed blackbirds in the marshes. A few > white-faced ibis were in the area, and there was a nice variety of > shorebirds, including dowitchers, godwits (no rarites of either group), peeps > (semi-palms, least, Baird's), a willet, avocets and bn stilts. > > Loloff: pretty much the same as 59 in lower numbers. > > Latham: we managed a Virginia rail and a FOS marsh wren. Not much going in > the way of shorebirds. > > Beebe Draw: Blackbirdolooza. There were hundreds of yellow-heads scattered > around the grassy pasture surrounding the pond. More than I have ever seen > outside a marsh, and maybe more than anywere. It made the pasture look like > it had been overrun with dandelions. Also in the area were four burrowing > owls. There was also a group of ten willets. Question: why does eBird > insist on clasifying willet as a "rarity" this time of year on the eastern > plains when they can be found at virtually every mudflat? We had them at 59 > and Beebe today. > > All in all, it was an intriguing outing. We managed 80 species with only one > more-or-less neotrop in the orange-crowns. Other than a few Say's phoebes, > we had no flycatchers, no other warblers, no vireos, no orioles. > > Good birding, > > Norm > Norm Lewis > Lakewood, CO > -- > 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. > > -- 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.
