Thanks to Van Rudd for this note. The *rock wren* show yesterday, Sat., Oct. 3, at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Adams County, was brilliant. Easily the most impressive rock wren migration I've ever witnessed. My companions and I saw at least 8--some of them on rocks, others elsewhere: in fields of mullein, even under a parked pickup truck.
It was a lovely day to be out. We found more than 60 species of birds, highlighted by a *Woodhouse scrub-jay,* two early *hooded mergansers,* 48 *high-flying sandhill cranes,* a *snowy egret* hanging on, a *sage thrasher* and a couple of *mountain bluebirds,* a *hermit thrush* and another *Catharus*, flyover *pine siskins,* and all those marvelous rock wrens. *Dark-eyed juncos* and *white-crowned sparrows* were back in force, and the sparrow show was, on the whole, quite decent; most intriguing was a briefly glimpsed candidate LeConte's sparrow near the refuge entrance off Gateway Road. Here's our eBird checklist: https://ebird.org/checklist/S74378880 Great insects out there, highlighted by a queen, a brilliant orange butterfly from the South. Festive tiger beetles were legion, and we saw several purple tiger beetles--some of which are dazzlingly green. Go figure. Ted Floyd Lafayette, Boulder County On Sunday, October 4, 2020 at 6:57:38 AM UTC-6 [email protected] wrote: > Hi all, > Had a great day at RMA with a Lesser Yellowlegs & a Sage Thrasher being > added to my 2020 list. https://ebird.org/checklist/S74362841 > However, there was a 3rd bird which stumped me. I initially thought it was > a Rock Wren given the long bill (too long for a Vireo), drab cream-colored > breast (no stripes like a Sage Thrasher), size (slightly larger than the > other Rock Wrens we saw), and eye stripe (very bold). However, it wasn't > anywhere near a rock. > We saw it twice, once on top of an outhouse building, and then on some > logs. It was foraging for insects and not making a sound. One interesting > behavior I had not seen before in Rock Wrens: it was bobbing up and down. > Not rocking, not tail flicking, it looked like it was doing deep knee > bends! I have never seen this. > Later on we saw two other Rock Wrens (on rocks this time) and the eye > stripe was less distinct and there was no bobbing. they also looked smaller > than the bird we saw. > One last identifying feature: the bird had black and white bands on the > underside of its tail. > Any help would be greatly appreciated. > Good birding, > Van Rudd > Louisville, 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/b53a0dc5-73a1-44b1-ae92-353cf39224d6n%40googlegroups.com.
