Curious what precautions were taken to prevent the accidental destruction of other ground nests of this *very high quality* grassland bird community (beyond Baird's Sparrow) as recorded and documented by the biologists at Bird Conservancy of the Rockies.
Scott E Severs Longmont On Saturday, July 23, 2016 at 7:34:09 PM UTC-6, Nick Komar wrote: > > Good news first. I believe that all 16 trip participants heard or saw at > least one Baird's Sparrow (BAIS) late this morning after hiking more than 3 > miles for the privilege at Soapstone Prairie Natural Area in Northeast > Larimer County. > > The bad news: Activity in the publicly accessible BAIS colony (which has > had as many as 15 singing males in an area <1 square mile) seemed > substantially reduced today. Not more than 8 singing males were detected > today, and each bird sang much less frequently during approximately 2.5 hrs > (9:45 am - 12:15 pm). Details on how these birds were distributed along > the trails is posted on eBird. > > Fortunately, a BAIS in fresh juvenile plumage, suggestive of local > fledging, was photographed. It's young age was corroborated by the > appearance of a fleshy gape (my photo inserted below). > > Unfortunately, this juvenile was not being fed by adults and seemed to be > fully fledged and independent of adults. So it's presence may not confirm > local breeding, although opinions may vary on this issue. > > Additional efforts to document local breeding by BAIS may benefit from > arriving on site earlier in the day. If there is interest among the CFO > community to search for BAIS nesting activity the next two Saturday's, > additional nest-searching events like the one this morning will be > considered. Contact me off-line if you would be interested in participating > in such an event on Saturday, July 30, or Saturday August 6. > > Finally, thanks to Fort Collins Natural Areas staff for issuing the off > trail permit which was key to our success, and for bringing us refreshments > after the search. This made the 3-mile hike back to our vehicle much more > enjoyable. > > Nick Komar > Fort Collins 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/43270bd1-be7a-4927-b8db-e7ab25db071d%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
