Dan, Scott, Brenda, and I separately ended up at Crow Valley CG today, joined
forces, and spent a good chunk of the morning together. Around 8am Dan had
spotted the White-eyed Vireo in the southwest corner juniper clump and escorted
the rest of us down there. Unfortunately, we didn't get great looks at it. I
saw it for all of 5 seconds near the top of the female juniper (the
northernmost one with berries) and I don't believe Scott or Brenda got any
looks. The bird flat disappeared, perhaps flying off incognito with a couple
goldfinches. It very well could still be out there but because of its silence
and rather non-flashy habits/appearance, it's a tough one. Kudos to Mark for
finding it in the first place (and getting his usual killer photos) and Dan for
relocating it today.
Also present were:
Eastern Bluebird (4) - hanging out mostly in the elms north of the main road,
roughly northeast of the main Picnic Shelter
Red-bellied Woodpecker (male) - continues, roams all over the riparian zone
along the south and west edge of the campground, frequently vocalizes his
"yyuck, yyuck" call
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (at least a few, Dan had a count of 7 but that may have
included the same individuals being seen more than once)
Townsend's Solitaire (1)
Hermit Thrush (1)
Great-tailed Grackle (flock of about 20 flew over from nw to se)
Brown Creeper (1)
Lapland Longspur (many flyovers)
Hairy Woodpecker (probably the same one that has been there, I never can get a
feel for its race when its flying at a distance)
Downy Woodpeckers (including one mt. form)
Northern Flicker (including at least one "pure" yellow-shafted)
many juncos
many (30+) American Goldfinches
no redpolls
no Varied Thrush
Hosts are gone. Main gate up by CR77 is still open. Bathrooms still open.
After Crow Valley I went over to Jackson Res for a bit. Between Briggsdale
and Jackson I had two juvenile Northern Shrikes and several American Tree
Sparrows.
At Jackson, I bought a new Year Pass for State Parks and spent a good bit of my
time in the parking lot of the VC scraping off the old one in order to afix the
new one. The sticky stuff they use on those decals is definitely space age. I
did find that if you can manage to scrape off the plastic face of the sticker,
the adhesive comes off fairly well with a liberal application of rubbing
alcohol (but it still seemed like a dreadful waste of perfectly good
caterpillar preservative).
As for birds at Jackson, I scanned the water from the north shore and didn't
see any candidates for loons or other interesting waterfowl (except for one
Bonaparte's Gull) and spent the rest of daylight walking the west shore
thickets near the campgrounds northeast of the VC. Several Yellow-rumped
Warblers, another mountain race Downy Woodpecker, that's about it. No Varied
Thrush that I could find. No Long-eared Owls.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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