Just a note that you, Ted, reported fireflies on June 9-10, 2017, according to the search function on this august list. So they are early but have been early before!
- Sandra Laursen On Saturday, June 6, 2020 at 4:27:12 PM UTC-6, Ted Floyd wrote: > > Hey, folks. > > Andrew Floyd and I, having nothing better to do yesterday evening, > Fri.-Sat., June 5-6, decided to go out in search of things that go bump, > hoot, *huhuhuhuhuhuhu*, and *p't'tip-pzzzzzzzzz* in the night. > > We started out up Flagstaff Road, just west of the Boulder city limits, > more congested--truly, *congested*--than I'd ever seen it. But we managed > to find a roadside spot far from, or at least not in the immediate vicinity > of, the madding crowd. The last of the *hermit thrushes* were settling > down as we ourselves were getting settled in, and the first of the > *flammulated > owls* avowed at 8:54pm. The flamms (*n*=2) never got particularly close, > and neither did a *common poorwill* (*n*=1) down in a ravine below, but > the *northern saw-whet owls* (*n*=4) were fantastic. We found ourselves > in the midst of a foursome of saw-whets, two of them hooting wildly, a > third uttering that eerie and rarely heard whetting-of-the-saw sound, and a > fourth giving a shrill whistle that sounds like a cross between a kitten > and a wraith. Here's one of them: > > https://www.xeno-canto.org/565795 > > A comment: Owls and nightjars are eminently findable at this time of the > year up Flagstaff Road, and you absolutely do not need playback to hear > them. They're just singing spontaneously. You don't even have to leave the > roadside pull-offs to hear them. And the idea of using lights for enjoying > owls is equivalent to blasting your Metallica CD whilst listening to the > "Sanctus" from the Berlioz *Requiem*. Lights are good in certain > instances, and so, I suppose, is Metallica, but it is beyond senseless to > use lights whilst delighting in the transcendent magic of a chorus of owls. > > We saw a bat up there, by the way, during twilight, and I suspect it was a > hoary bat, *Aeorestes cinereus*. A good way to confirm that a whitish bat > is that species is to point your recorder (cellphone fine) in the direction > of the bat; the hoary bat is anomalously low-pitched, and extremely loud, > and even though we humans can't hear the species, our recorders can, and > you can totally see the spectrogram if you jack the y-axis up into the 20 > kHz band; you should be able to see their freakishly powerful, but > inaudible, chirps coming in just under 22 kHz, with their characteristic > steep up-sweeps. > > On the drive down, we saw a red fox, *V. vulpes*, trotting right along > Flagstaff Road. We also saw massive throngs of disappointed strawberry moon > seekers, for it was entirely overcast there, and a bit breezy. And > remarkably warm. At the base of the canyon, Andrew heard a *yellow-breasted > chat,* and I heard road noise. > > Alright, next it was over to the marshes at the west end of Boulder > Reservoir. Practically birdless there, with only a few *Canada geese* in > the distance, but the anuran concert was splendid; three or four species, > and the Woodhouse toads, *Anaxyrus woodhousii*, were just going OFF. The > frogs and toads were awesome, but the real show-stoppers were the > fireflies, Lampyridae spp., like the Milky Way come down to Earth, in the > cattails right along the road. A motorist stopped to inquire what we were > doing, and we explained that you have to turn your headlights *off* to > see the fireflies, and the driver said, "Well, that's the dumbest thing, > how can you see anything in the dark?" and drove away. Hooooookay. Anyhow, > the fireflies just west of Boulder Rez are glorious, they're there for > anybody to see, and, yes, I assure you, you need to turn off your lights to > see them. Again: Metallica...Berlioz... > > I was surprised that the firefly show was so good on the early date of > June 5. Usually, in my experience, it's a late-June-into-early-July thing > here in Boulder County. I wonder if that means they're just early this > year, or, if I might entertain the happy thought, that they're going to be > REALLY good in a few weeks. > > Next stop: Cottonwood Marsh, where it was still a bit breezy, still > overcast, and still warm. We hadn't even gotten out of the car when Andrew > announced, "Listen, I can hear a *chup-chup-CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'-kizzzzz* > out there!" Sure enough: > > https://www.xeno-canto.org/565791 > > It's a *western marsh wren* (Woodhouse toad also audible in that cut), > but I shall henceforth refer to it as a > *chup-chup-CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'-kizzzzz*. Hey, it's a lot more > descriptive, and arguably more evocative, than X Æ A-12. Anyhow, the > bird sang constantly the whole time we were there, and we can tell it's > from the western population by the elements of any particular song and, > especially, by the variation *among* the different songs (*n*=15 in that > cut). Don Kroodsma and others think the marsh wren might comprise two > species, with both likely occurring in Colorado. So, once you've got the > crossbills all figured out (good luck with that), see what you can do with > your marsh wrens. There were bats here, too, big brown ones, and I wonder > if they were indeed big brown bats, *Eptesicus fuscus*. I don't know. > Also a *killdeer* flying over. That I do know. > > After Cottonwood Marsh, we went to an area of Gun Barrel Hill where I have > succeeded in the past in hearing a very special bird while still standing > by the car. It required Andrew's supersonic ears, but we got it: > > https://www.xeno-canto.org/565789 > > That is a *grasshopper sparrow* (*p't'tip-pzzzzzzzzz*), in my mind one of > the most enchanting of all night-singing bird species. Andrew's ears were > indisputably useful, but I think we got an assist from the full moon, too. > It finally came out, if only for a few minutes, and I suspect the moonlight > induced the sparrows, plural, to amp up their singing. No pix of the > birds--in fact we didn't see any birds at all last night--but here's my > human companion, watching the moon and listening to sparrows: > > [image: AKF night.jpg] > > You might have noticed some crickets in that cut of the grasshopper > sparrow. How could you *not* have noticed them? But if you somehow > overlooked the crickets, here they are in all their glory: > > https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/48673024 > > They're field crickets in the genus *Gryllus*, and pretty likely *G. > veletis*, I think. We heard a couple of insomniac *western meadowlarks* > at this stop, too. > > After the sparrows and crickets and meadowlarks, we popped in on > Sawhill--yeah, for those of you who know the Boulder County lowlands, our > itinerary had, by this point, become altogether haphazard. It was overcast > again, fully and thoroughly and completely overcast, and a winnowing *Wilson > snipe* was going berserk. The snipe's winnowing (*huhuhuhuhuhuhu*) is a > sonation, not a vocalization, made with the bird's *tail*. Who knew! I > don't think the snipe ever got particularly close to the ground, and that > was sort of the point--that disembodied sound, spooky and supremely > soothing, waaaaay up there, utterly indifferent to Andrew and me and the > fishermen and frogs below. (Frogs: North American bullfrogs, *Lithobates > catesbeianus*, and chorus frogs, *Pseudacris* spp.) > > Final stop: Teller Lake No. 5. The only birds we could hear were ducks, or > maybe coots or grebes or fish or a boot, flapping or flopping in the water. > But the bats, little brown jobs, were wondrous, frequently flying so close > that we could practically reach out and touch them. Not sure what species, > but the little brown bat, *Myotis lucifugus*, seemed reasonable. Saw a > raccoon, *Procyon lotor*, here and heard a troupe of coyotes, *Canis > latrans*. > > Well, starting with the first flam just before 9pm and wrapping up with > the snipe just before 2am, we found a grand total of ten (10) bird species > the whole time we were out there, and, as I said earlier, we never actually > laid eyes on *any* birds. But it was an unforgettable night of birding > and nature study, and we celebrated on the way back home to Lafayette with > a bag of baked cheddar jalapeño pretzel Combos®: > > [image: AKF-TF.jpg] > > Ted Floyd > Lafayette, Boulder County > -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/8a547ccc-43b6-4143-ac50-83202cff8372o%40googlegroups.com.
