Sunday (June 2) was indeed a beautiful day on the plains. I stopped at several spots in northeast CO that I hadn't visited during another recent trip. Here are a few impressions:
(1) Pioneer Park in Sterling (Logan County): Birds were surprisingly scarce here at sunrise, and the only (late) migrants I found were a couple of red-breasted nuthatches. The trees in the park still seem to be struggling from drought in prior years. (2) Holyoke (Phillips County): Arriving into town from the west, I was pleasantly surprised to see an American Crow, a rather uncommon bird in northeast Colorado. The Holyoke cemetery was birdy as it often is. As Steve Mlodinow has pointed out, the birds love the combination of trees in the cemetery and the nearby agricultural fields for foraging. Birds are seen coming and going constantly in the cemetery. Although I didn't find rare birds, I enjoyed seeing an American Redstart (female), a Willow Flycatcher (probable ID; it had unusually yellow undersides), and the expected 3 species of orioles. I didn't find much in town around the park and courthouse, but apparently the good stuff was farther north, near the creek. Checking some groves of trees here and there outside of Holyoke, I usually found empids and pewees. I also heard a sound of summer -- Dickcissel -- now being reported in a few locations in eastern CO on ebird. (3) Haxtun (Phillips County): The PHILADELPHIA VIREO in the city park, a hermit thrush (*), and an empid were the migrants I found. In general, the trees and shrubs around town look good to me for attracting birds, so I will make Haxtun a regular stop. (*) Yesterday, I saw more hermit thrushes than Swainson's thrushes, quite a change from the previous 2-3 weeks. (I didn't see large numbers of either type.) The Swainson's thrush migration was seemingly a brief flood during a long trickle of hermit thrush migration. (4) Sedgwick Bar SWA (Sedgwick County): I didn't know anything about this place except that it appears on my road atlas. My first impression is positive, seeing some birds immediately after stepping out of the car: 3 Great Crested Flycatchers, Indigo Bunting (male), Baltimore Orioles, etc. I'll have to find out more about the place and see if it can be birded without epic bushwhacking. The area is much smaller than nearby Tamarack but still has some good-looking habitat. (5) Duck Creek SWA (Logan County): I agree with the county birding guide that the habitat looks great here. But my second visit to this area this year yielded the same result as the first time -- not much -- even with lots of effort covering the area this time. Strangely, I didn't see a single American robin in the area. Highlights during this visit were Blue Grosbeak (male) and a few Cedar Waxwings. On the way home, I made a couple of stops in Weld County, the first at the Mountain Plover spot (good views of one plover) found by Greg Prelich and mentioned in Gary Lefko's post, and the second at Norma's Grove (quiet as it often is outside the peak of migration, but a good place to find a common nighthawk or two). David Dowell Longmont, 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/93317245-dfe4-4202-859a-7eafe88a23e3%40googlegroups.com?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
