Greetings All
Though the Pueblo are and Larimer had periods of intense goodness, and the southeast was fairly good for a bit, overall eastern CO was pretty slow this spring. I've been pondering such, discussing it with some other folks who know more than their share about migration. My thoughts are as below. So, a wet summer and lush fall disperses birds in the Plains, as thick rank growth brings about sunflower "thickets" and lots of bugs to pull passerines away from oases. Also, the mountains (usually very dry) are now attractive, further pulling birds away from Plains oases. We suffered through such an event last fall, and passerine migrants were hard to locate on the Plains However, even in a typical spring, there is not much in the way of flowers and low-lying vegetation in mid-May (compared with Aug/Sep), especially in n. CO, and probably even more so during a cool year. In spring, there are no sunflower "thickets" to pull birds away from oases, and this spring, even finding a bug to photograph during peak spring migration was very challenging. During this May, I suspect that the weather system over CO and surrounding areas to the east formed a block to northbound migrants. I believe that birds either stalled out, fattening up where conditions were better, and then bolted north (leaping over CO) when the weather cleared (in spring birds are in much more of a hurry, wanting to snap up choice breeding territories.) I also suspect that some birds tried to go around, explaining the stunning spring 2015 in the mountains and West Slope of CO. Pueblo is always good, and I am not certain that this year in Pueblo/Florence was that much better than average. The events in Larimer seem singular, and it is interesting that such was not replicated in Boulder. So, an anomaly. As for shorebirds, all of the extra rain could easily explain the apparent absence as far more habitat was available, though I suspect they, too, did an end-around or a jump-over the state. Here is to a birdy summer Steven Mlodinow 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/14db4a4d69e-3e69-fe86%40webprd-a68.mail.aol.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
