This is not about doves. For the record, I think the dove-hunting discussion
should have been allowed to continue for as long as people had meaningful
things to say. That said, I do not want to be the moderator for this site and
very much appreciate the thankless job Todd and his predecessors have had. As
the person who accepted the assignment, Todd has the right to cut things off
when he feels continuance is serving no real purpose, and I respect that.
Let's get a thread going about atlatls. Closet spear-chuckers and
spear-chucker haters arise from your slumber. Today at Crow Valley Campground,
we all saw a new one. "We" were the Denver Audubon Master Birder class and
mentors seeking sparrows and any birds we could find still in a solid, unmelted
state. At Crow Valley we saw a Warbling Vireo, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western
Tanager, a few Wilson's Warblers, one Sage Thrasher perched the top of a
50-foot cottonwood next to a Brown Thrasher for comparison (ever seen these two
species in the same binocular view?), and even two species of sparrows
(Chipping and Lark Bunting). I would call it the hottest, unbirdiest day I've
ever witnessed at Crow Valley in early September (only 16 species, we did not
go out to the north outback because of not wanting to disturb the dove
hunters).
But what about the spear-chuckers? They had the entire area n of the main road
e of the Main Picnic Shelter decorated with garish straw decoys to practice and
perfect their skill. Since Woman's Softball has been removed from the Olympic
Games roster of events, will Atlatl take its place? We even saw a giant straw
bass (large-mouthed by our best guesses) hanging 4 feet off the ground. This
was chosen for the focus of our team photo. Since atlatl chucking is not
expressly prohibited in the USFS guidelines given the official Host, he saw no
reason why this might be in conflict with other campground uses and drove his
little cart around happy as a clam. Had he been a 3-foot clam decoy hanging
from an elm, he might have changed his tune. Actually I gotta say one of the
spear chuckers, who I nominate for U.S. Ambassador to Syria, actually came over
to join our informal lunch, told us more than we really wanted to know about
the ancient origins of the atlatl and how they were used to hunt mammoths
(maybe they should find a historically accurate site for their practicing in
Aspen?), was willing to give any birder with a little spirit of adventure free
lessons, and even offered free tomatoes. Weld County gets a little more like
Thunderdome each day is all I gotta say.
In the town of Briggsdale, we surprisingly found a Long-eared Owl in the row of
elms s of the 4H building w of the big school. The 4H building is the one with
the big wooden tractor on the east side out front.
At Loloff Res we found one adult Sabine's Gull.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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