Saturday evening (5/27), after a day spent watching songbirds in my yard, I caught sight of a Peregrine Falcon soaring over my Centennial neighborhood in west Arapahoe Co. This was a new yard bird for me.
On Sunday (5/28), I joined the DFO trip, led by Pratyaydipta Rudra and Sreemala Das Majumder, at Marjorie Perry Nature Preserve in Greenwood Village. I suspect everyone’s highlight was the Great Horned Owl family perched in a prominent tree on a private residence just beyond the preserve’s ponds. We also had flyover Great Egrets, which aren’t easy to come by in the area. We were told that they were new birds for the DFO Big Month. Warbling Vireos, a Clay-colored Sparrow, and a Pied-billed Grebe were other good birds. So were the many cooperative Common Yellowthroats and Tree Swallows. After the trip, I walked my dog between Blackmer Lake and Three Ponds Park, to see if I could spot the Common Poorwill that Chris, Rebecca, and I saw on Wednesday (5/24) last week. Nope. The ditch it was in or near at Three Ponds Park was filled with water on Sunday, due to Saturday’s rainfall. I spent the rest of the afternoon working around my yard. Midday, I was joined by a flycatcher. For the most part, the bird stayed hidden behind the tree line of my neighbors’ yards. But it perched, for a time, on the power lines that run on my side of the trees. I got some decent views of a lifer Willow Flycatcher. I’ve spent a lot of time inspecting Western Wood-Pewees since fall 2015, when Chris Rurik and I saw a confounding Willow / Western Wood-Pewee at Denver Botanic Gardens. After that encounter, Chris sent me a helpful link about that ID problem, and, for a year and a half, I’ve been waiting for it to pay off. Sunday evening, my dog, Pete Dunne's book *Prairie Spring*, and I staked out Common Nighthawks over my yard. The three of us got a precise count of exactly zero, give or take none. On Monday (5/29), I spent the morning at Willow Spring Open Space, where I keep looking for and not finding Western Kingbirds. I think there were two pairs there last spring and summer, but I only sporadically visited the open space last year so I don’t feel confident in that. Today, still none. I also hoped to hear Virginia’s Rails and Soras. Nope. Many Broad-tailed Hummers, though, and a Bullock’s Oriole. On my way out of Willow Spring, I spotted a face among the scrubby plants near the northern trailhead on S. Homestead Pkwy. Believe it or not, I took the face for a prairie dog’s…until I got my binoculars on it, the face lifted up, and the body of a Swainson’s Hawk trailed the face. The hawk was carrying some sort of mammal (photo below). (Swainson’s have been prolific killers lately. Well, I imagine they’re always fairly prolific killers…it’s just that this is my third encounter witha Swainson’s Hawk with prey over the past few weeks…) The bird perched at the corner of S. Homestead Pkwy and E. Costilla Ave, near where I parked my car, and started working on its meal. But it flew off as I approached, openly hostile to my interest in photographing it eating. <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-x8cQ8y7MfmU/WSxuso_Pm2I/AAAAAAAANl4/h33XeARwxIErC9HFD4MmhdH1MY0oR0WGACLcB/s1600/DSC_0750%2BSwainsons.jpg> Just north of Willow Spring Open Space is Holly Park, a small park with a public pool and tennis court. The Little Dry Creek bisects the park. I’ve never birded it, though I once eBirded a Northern Shrike there from a redlight at E. Arapahoe Rd. & S. Holly St., which intersect at the park’s southwestern corner. There are always many swallows near that corner, so I decided to visit the park today. It’s limited, but promising. There is a thin line of trees along the Little Dry Creek. There wasn’t much beyond House Finches, Black-capped Chickadees, and a Western Wood-Pewee or two in those trees. But, as I walked the park, it struck me as especially promising for sparrows, Sage Thrasher, and possibly Rock Wren during migration. As if on cue, a male Lark Bunting (photo below), my first in west Arapahoe Co. in the spring, appeared, affirming at least some of my suspicions about the park. There were also four swallow types (Northern Rough-winged, Barn, Cliff, and Violet-green) and one of the Western Kingbirds that I expected to see at Willow Spring. <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-aAoleV_YiP8/WSxvYpee6ZI/AAAAAAAANmA/xw9qJC3mUf8CTcKwwKy-2kpT1m0gOEINACLcB/s1600/DSC_0739%2BLark%2BBunting.jpg> I also think the park may be good for Common Nighthawks, at least as good as anywhere else in west Arapahoe. (I haven’t yet found a semi-reliable spot for them here, so this isn’t saying much.) The park has a high, gravel trail that might appeal to nighthawks and lots of open & grassy space. Even the human additions to the parks may help. The tennis courts are surrounded by lights (though I don’t know when they’re turned on) that may draw bugs. And there is a small, utility building that appears to have a gravel-covered roof. Nighthawks seem to especially like gravel-covered roofs for roosting and nesting. I think this building is too small and low for nesting, but perhaps as a roosting spot during migration it’ll do. - Jared Del Rosso Centennial, 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/d18b8e95-02a7-4d17-9a74-5c77d284f373%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
