Hello Colorado Birders: Yesterday evening I ventured out in hopes of adding Common Nighthawk to my San Miguel County list. My Bull-bat search came up empty but I scored a decent number of duck and shorebird species given the limited habitat in this part of the state.
The first place I searched was a series of three farm ponds on the east side of county road 44Z, just north of highway 145, on the east side of Norwood. I inadvertently interrupted an adult *Peregrine Falcon* consuming a prey item. It flew off to another fencepost and resumed its meal. A *Solitary Sandpiper* was working the muddy edge of the southernmost pond and a *Wilson's Snipe* tried to hide in the vegetation lining the northernmost pond. A fine mix of swallows were swirling just above the surface of the central pond. A *Pied-billed Grebe* has been occupying the central pond for quite some time. I have never witnessed a Pied-billed Grebe in sustained flight so whenever I see one on a tiny pond like that I become more and more convinced that they have an elaborate tunnel system connecting bodies of water across North America. The complete checklist (photos) can be viewed at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39006062 Racing the sinking sun, I made a beeline for Miramonte Reservoir. While the waterfowl numbers have not built up just yet, the increased duck diversity (nine species) from a month ago was notable. A flock of eight *American Avocets* were huddled together in the NW corner and I finally caught up to the previous reported *Baird's Sandpipers(2)* at the south end. The complete checklist (photos) can be viewed at: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S39010634 Good birding, Eric ..................... Eric Hynes Telluride, CO --------------------- Field Guides Birding Tours www.fieldguides.com http://fieldguides.com/guides/eric-hynes -- 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/CAPpN%2B3GqMSs%3D3L9ju4BOwTOzNtHwZT1oUgYer9baRnXyMxngAw%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
