I apologize for the late posting on a day trip to Elbert County on 4/20...but no one birds there anyway, so it seems. I enjoyed it though, logging 102 species and encountering a good array of shorebirds, ducks and some other waterbirds for that county.
I began the first part of the morning near Elizabeth making stops in pine forest, mostly. A *Common Loon* flying north over Elizabeth was a treat, and probably a pretty good county bird. *Red Crossbills *(Type 2) and *Red-breasted Nuthatches *were still common in the pine forest, and I was sort of surprised to encounter *Cassin's Finches* at several stops, but I guess they are known to nest out in Elbert. A few *Gray-headed Juncos* were there, too. Kiowa (town) had a pair of plains-worthy *Bushtits*. *Common Raven* was at two spots a short way west of Kiowa. >From there pretty much all my stops were in the plains south of Highway 86. There were quite a few small ponds and some moderate-sized ponds that had water. Some had no birds, but many had one or several waterbird species. Shorebirds included *American Avocet*, *Killdeer*, *Mountain Plover* (CR 197), *Greater Yellowlegs*, *Lesser Yellowlegs*, *Whimbrel *(CR 197, flying N with curlews), *Long-billed Curlew*, *Baird's Sandpiper* (CR 86), *Least Sandpiper*, *Western Sandpiper*, *Wilson's Snipe *and *Wilson's Phalarope*. Waterfowl included *Canada Goose*, *Wood Duck*, *Gadwall*, *American Wigeon*, *Mallard*, *Blue-winged Teal*, *Cinnamon Teal*, *Northern Pintail, **Green-winged Teal*, *Lesser Scaup*. Some other waterbirds *Pied-billed *and *Eared Grebes*, *White-faced Ibis* and *Franklin's Gull*. I noted small numbers of *McCown's* and *Chestnut-collared Longspurs*, an early *Bullock's Oriole* (CR 22), and a decent assortment of sparrows: *Chipping*, *Brewer's*, *Vesper*, *Lark*, *Savannah*, *Grasshopper*, *Song*, *Lincoln's*, *White-crowned* and *Lark Bunting*. David Suddjian Littleton, 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/CAGj6RooryFFm3aX14NLD_5pKqWGVAf%2B%3DJCd1AFQM8oCaQVOEAw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
