Miracles never cease. After 40+ years, and five tries up to CR5 in the last 8
days, I saw Baird's Sparrows in Colorado this morning (8/11) on Larimer CR5.
Following the recipe provided by Nick, David, and Georgia from their most
recent sightings yesterday, I arrived at the spot 1.7 miles north of Buckeye
Road (CR82) at 6:20am. Checking every single thing with feathers on the road
and fencelines, at 6:25am two Baird's Sparrows were in the road with Lark
Buntings, Grasshopper Sparrows and Vesper Sparrows picking things (couldn't
tell if insect or plant) and chasing each other. They flew to the fence west
of the road briefly where I got a few photos. A Colorado Parks and Wildlife
truck on its way to the prairie-dog town further north along CR5 stirred things
up and the two birds were not seen again. At 1.8 miles north of CR82 at
6:30-6:35 I got photos of what I think was a third bird on the fence west of
the road.
As everybody who has been there has noticed and remarked, the situation is
difficult because everything has stripes, most have white outer tail feathers,
most have some fashion of a central crown stripe, few birds are singing (or can
be heard because of one thing or another: idling coal trains, moving coal
trains, wind, that concert in 1968, and even vehicle noise on I-25 to the
east). Today one of the photographed Baird's Sparrows has a distinctly forked
tail (very Savannah Sparrowish). Baird's is supposed to have the squarest tail
of the Ammodramus group, and yet the head and back of this fork-tailed
individual are matches for Baird's. Throw in the fact some Savannah Sparrows
have white outer tail feathers, lots of yellow tones on the head, quite similar
markings, it becomes pretty easy to forget about your gut and over-think the
situation. Most of the time when I overthink, rare species morph into the most
likely species. I suspect with some birders under the influence of desire (can
DPW issue a citation for BUI?), it is the other way around. Both are wrong.
Thanks again to Nick and associates for getting onto, and persisting, with this
situation.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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