This is not so much intel for fast-twitchers with a full gas tank as a progress
report on this autumn's migration in the Lamar area. As others have stated
overtly or implied, things seem slow getting started. Of course, autumn
migration in Lamar is always behind migration in northern CO. In going down
there frequently over the last 20 years, I have always figured things are a
week to 10 days delayed or advanced, depending which migration season we're
talking about. I still think there are three seasons, although I could almost
concur with a certain renegade among us who talks about four. I love late
August-early September in southeastern CO, if only for its elements of
difficulty (juveniles everywhere you look, changing status (some species
leaving, some arriving), the sense of excitement one senses in the
staging/beginning-to-move birds (reminds me of my Dad, Grandfather L, and Uncle
Hill pulling out impossible to refold maps and discussing long auto vacation
routes), odd vocalizations (individuals from out of town, young birds with
imperfect skills and anatomy), and, yes, even the
heat/chiggers/mosquitoes/dust. Birding "down there" in late summer, in short,
is messy and not the kind of stuff you could, or would want to, put in a
guidebook or brochure. Even in a weather pattern "stuck" on high pressure, as
the period of this visit was, the daily change is evident, especially when you
bird the same places day after day. To me those changes are as exciting as
those between two locations 100 miles apart, and you will never hear me
apologizing for staying in one stop for 2 hours. Come on, it takes me 15
minutes to get out of the car.
Random comments about the recent visit, which concentrated on (1) what I call
the Lamar "CBC" circle centered on the north end of downtown (the historic
movie theater) and (2) Tempel's Grove in Bent County on CR35 north of SS where
the road crosses Fort Lyon Canal, and (3) a few forays up to the "back again"
Great Plains Reservoirs with their zillions of confusing official and local
names/accesses/rules/changing daily water levels.
.The most conspicuous groups of neotropical migrants were big flycatchers
(Olive-sided, Western Wood-Pewee, Great-crested, kingbirds, one Ash-throated)
and vireos (Red-eyed, Warbling, one Cassin's.
.Hard to know how many Great Crested Flycatchers I saw during the week+, but at
least 7-8, all totally silent (seemed like every in-town or rural riparian site
with 10+ big trees had one).
.Flycatchers and vireos eat a lot of wasps and berries (esp. those of Virginia
Creeper) during migration.
.Early Swainson's Thrush in Lamar private yard eating Virginia Creeper berries.
.Two Marbled Godwits at private gravel operation in Lamar.
.Warblers present were locals like Yellow, chat (really local or from the
places north/west?), and C. Yellowthroat, plus a few early movers from the
mountains (Wilson's mostly, Orange-crowns and Yellow-rumps right at the
beginning of their big push)
.Orioles still lingering but not a lot of orange among them, mostly yellows,
greens, and whites.
.Spizella sparrows on the move, mostly Chipping, but a few Brewers and
Clay-colors arriving.
.Upland Sandpipers obviously flowing down across the eastern plains (never
heard at night, but small groups flushed from roads and field margins on three
occasions)
.Birds that can take advantage of dragonflies and damselflies in their diet are
doing well this year. The Great Plains Reservoirs, including Nee Noshe, Upper
and Lower Queens, and the complex called "Sweetwater", are all full of water
and cranking out the common odonates (Variegated Meadowhawks, Blue-eyed
Darners, and bluet damselflies in abundance). At Thurston Reservoir Janeal got
a great photo of a juvenile Eared Grebe, free-swimming but with parent nearby,
with a bluet in its beak.
.Despite all the water in impoundments, playas and ditches, not a lot of
shoreline for shorebirds and waders. Kochia, pigweed, etc., some approaching
sapling size, crowd the water edges. King Res is an exception but that place,
except as a reststop for cranes, seems to be a biological desert.
.Swainson's Hawks grouping up. Given the grasshopper populations and on-going
haying operations, huge kettles are probably in the offing.
.Some female/young Dickcissels took me to school. Combine general
yellowishness with early morning light and you get, "What the heck is that?"
Not well illustrated in the guides.
.Speaking of "not well covered in books", neither are juvenile sparrows. How
would you separate a juvenile Cassin's from Grasshopper? What do juvenile
Savannah, Vesper, and Lark look like? If a Rufous-winged showed up, especially
a young one, would we know it? Was that skulky "reddish" sparrow that hopped
up for 2 seconds out of the stringer of kochia, never to be seen again, a Song,
Swamp, or Henslow's?
.Not a lot of hummingbirds so far this summer/early "autumn" on the far eastern
plains, other than Black-chinned.
.Grackles remind me of Trump, prosperous, yes, but without manners.
.Total species seen in the Lamar "CBC" (which includes Thurston Res but does
not include Tempel's Grove or the Great Plains Reservoirs): 106 with only 4
warblers (during 2013 over a similar length span but skewed 5 days later, I had
147 species and 14 warbler species). Total species seen the entire trip,
including Tempel's Grove, the Great Plains Reservoirs and the trips from Fort
Collins down and back (Last Chance yesterday was a big, hot, windy,
blood-sucking mosquito zero but with FOS down low RcKinglet), was 128 or so.
Best non-Lamar"CBC" birds: Peregrine Falcon (Lower Queens), possible young
Glossy Ibis (Upper Queens), Common Terns (Upper Queens), American Redstarts (3
at Tempel's on 8/24), Ash-throated Flycatcher (Tempel's), Cordilleran
Flycatchers (Tempel's, Fort Lyon Ditch), Willow Flycatcher (Fort Lyon Ditch),
and Black Terns (as many as 42, at both Upper and Lower Queens).
Best non-bird highlights: RED BAT flying up and down the Fort Lyon Canal at
Tempel's Grove briefly on 8/25 during the middle of the day for only about 5
minutes; Carolina Mantis at Fairmount Cemetery in Lamar; beautiful Beautiful
Tiger Beetles (Cicindela pulchra) on the prairie north of town; 3 species of
Dipogon ant-mimic spider wasps on tree trunks at LCC ; a Coachwhip snake
zooming from the ground to its refuge 25 feet up in an Eads Cemetery spruce;
gorgeous yellow and black Pyrota sp. blister beetles.
Lastly, in 12 days of being down there I did NOT visit Lamar Community College
Woods once, except to collect a few special insects from select ornamental
trees south of the tennis courts, mostly out of presumed knowledge the current
threat of chiggers and mosquitoes in the woods proper would probably not be
worth the current bird payoff (10 days from now, different story), and out of
protest and growing distrust of what might happen there in the way of rumored
"improvements". As veterans of CO birding know, somebody always seems to have
plans for the LCC Woods. Depending on what transpires, I may post to this
forum further on the subject.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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