I visited quite a few spots in northeast Colorado, birding solo most of the time and with Alec Hopping and Bill Kaempfer some of the time (thanks for the good company and birding). Obviously, this year's spring migration will be remembered for rain and flooding. Waders and willpower proved insufficient for birding the flooded areas near the South Platte River, so I was unable to continue recent traditions such as birding a full day at Tamarack SWA near Crook.
Alder Flycatchers (on the CBRC state review list) have invaded Colorado this year, with about two dozen individual birds found this month in the state. Bill and I observed two at the Fishin' Hole in Holyoke (Phillips), 1 at Depoorter Lake in Julesburg (Sedgwick), and 2 in Ovid (Sedgwick) yesterday (May 25). Multiple visits to a few places during the previous week suggested that turnover was very rapid. I'm guessing that the birds took advantage of the breaks in the rain, clear conditions, and favorable winds during the weekend (as opposed to the continuous rain and fog during the previous week) to zip northward. The rare warblers found closer to the Front Range didn't turn up farther east on the Plains. However, I and others found Blackpoll and Tennessee Warblers in good numbers. (These are probably typical birds for the date and location, but numbers seemed unusually high.) The sudden appearance of many female warblers suggested that migration had peaked. One of the more memorable bird sightings was a Summer Tanager flycatching from a tree top yesterday at the Fishin' Hole in Holyoke. Other sightings are summarized on ebird. 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/4d992f15-076f-48d7-a525-c397167b1202%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
