Ah. Chihuahuan Raven. I know. The most problematic bird ID in Colorado. It is thus with at least a slight bit of trepidation that I herewith submit a report of a detection today, Friday, Jan. 23, of a *Chihuahuan Raven* at Greenlee Preserve, Boulder County.
I heard it first, 3 or 4 of those rough, cawing, burry, quacking notes. Then I saw it flying straight over, and was struck by the snappy, relatively shallow wingbeats, the long-but-not-really-long wings and tail, and the modest heft of the tail. I saw no plumage details at all (what's there to see on a raven, anyhow??), and, despite being close enough to see the bill, could not make out any bill-feathering characters one way of the other. As the bird flew off to the southeast, it gave 4 or 5 more call notes. As is so often the case, with these tricky IDs, Nathan Pieplow has superb coverage at his website: http://earbirding.com/blog/archives/4736 Other birds at the preserve were a *Cackling Goose* eating snow, a singing *Bushtit,* a singing *African Collared-Dove,* and *Eurasian Collared-Doves* galore. Here's a thought. When I moved to Boulder County, not all that long ago, Chihuahuan Ravens weren't yet on our radar screen, Bushtits were just beginning to colonize the foothills, Eurasian Collared-Doves were still a few years away, nobody had ever heard of an African Collared-Dove, and the Cackling Goose didn't even exist yet. Amazing how fast the birding world changes. Here are some thoughts on that: http://blog.aba.org/2015/01/great-expectations.html (Skip the boring article, and scroll down to the comments for the interesting Colorado content.) Ted Floyd 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/1abe66f4-1b39-4771-952d-490c0a6f4aa9%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
