[cobirds] Colorado RBA - April 21, 2010
Date:April 21, 2010 e-Mail: rba AT cfo-link.org phone: 303-659-8750 compiler: Allison Hilf This is the Colorado Rare Bird Alert for Wednesday April 21, 2010 at 7am sponsored by Denver Field Ornithologists and the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory. Highlight species include (*Denotes that there is new information for this species in this report) TRUMPETER SWAN (Lake) Surf Scoter (Lake) Barrow's Goldeneye (El Paso, Fremont, Summit, Weld) Green Heron (Boulder) YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON (*El Paso) White-winged Dove (*Prowers, Pueblo) Red-bellied Woodpecker (*Prowers) Black Phoebe (Delta, Pueblo) Eastern Phoebe (*Larimer, Pueblo) Yellow-throated Vireo (Douglas/Jefferson) Carolina Wren (*Prowers) Northern Parula(Bent, *El Paso) Black-throated Blue Warbler (Adams) Hooded Warbler (*El Paso) Harris’s Sparrow (Mesa, *Prowers) GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW (Fremont) Northern Cardinal (*Prowers) White-winged Crossbill (Lake, Larimer) To skip this recording to leave a message, press the star key at any time. Please leave your name, phone number, detailed directions including the county and dates for all sightings. It would be helpful if you would spell your last name. Adams County: --A Black-throated Blue Warbler was reported by Latona at EB Rains Jr. Memorial Park in Northglenn on April 18. From Northglenn Community Center at i25 and 120th, enter Rains Park and go right (south) on the farmers high line trail. From the first bridge you encounter, the bird was 200 yards south (upstream) around 11am. Bent County: --A male Northern Parula was reported by Nelson at Tempel Grove on April 16. It was also seen and heard by Nelson on April 18. Boulder County: --An adult Green Heron was reported by Nunnes at Walden Ponds Cottonwood Marsh on April 17. Delta County: --4 Black Phoebes were reported by Pieplow along the stream at Escalante Canyon on April 17. Douglas County/Jefferson County: --A Yellow-throated Vireo was reported by Kellner at Chatfield State Park on April 17 and was seen by multiple observers as recently as April 19. The bird was on the east side of the creek from the Plum Creek delta parking lot. Walk over the creek on the footbridge SE of the parking lot and then walk down stream to the last stand of tall trees before the lake. The bird has also been seen slightly east of this location and has been loosely associated with a flock of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Waterproof footwear is suggested. El Paso County: --A YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT HERON was reported by Lewantowicz at Hansen Nature Park (southern part of Fountain Creek Regional Park on April 16 and was seen as recently as April 19. From the Hansen Nature Park parking lot, take a small social trail that goes north through the woods. When you reach the marsh, you will notice two fallen down willow trees on your left (and a gigantic willow tree straight ahead on the edge of the trail. If you look west across the water to the opposite bank, the heron was standing in the reeds. --A Northern Parula was reported by Wild in the same location as the Yellow-crowned Night Heron on April 19. It was just SE of the pond, high up in a tree. --A male Hooded Warbler was reported by Percival at Holmes Grove at Chico Basin Ranch (fee area) on April 16 and was found again on April 17. A male Hooded Warbler was banded by RMBO at the Chico Basin Ranch (fee area) on April 19. --A male Northern Parula was reported by Percival at the Casita at Chico Basin Ranch (fee area) on April 16 and was found again on April 17 and 19th. --A female Barrow’s Goldeneye was reported by Wild at Big Johnson Reservoir on April 19. Fremont County: --A GOLDEN-CROWNED SPARROW was reported by Miller at Tunnel Drive in Canon City on April 16 and was seen again by Percival on April 19. The bird was seen west of the gate with the no parking sign. --A female Barrow’s Goldeneye was reported by Miller at the Tunnel Drive Water Reservoir on April 16. Lake county: --A TRUMPETER SWAN was reported by Wild at Twin Lakes on April 16 and by Riffe on April 18. --A Surf Scoter (female) was reported by Wild at Mt. Elbert Forebay on April 16 and by Riffe on April 18. --A male White-winged Crossbill was reported by Wild at Mt. Elbert Forebay on April 16. Larimer County: --A pair of White-winged Crossbills has been observed by Leatherman at Grandview Cemetery, west end of Mountain Avenue in Fort Collins since November 22. The pair had nestlings that were close to fledging but were not located as of April 14. The adults were last reported by Cropper in some big deciduous trees east of the pumphouse corner (the big trees are near the little cart bridge that runs between the green at #3 and the tee at #4. The sighting lasted about 10 minutes before they flew off. For those still wanting to try locating the crossbill pair, Leatherman suggests the southeast corner, then wander the cemetery checking big spruce with cones.
[cobirds] Lee Martinez Park/Fort Collins
While birding on my way to work on bike I heard an Orange-crowned Warbler and Song Sparrow having a sing off. Also present was a single Audubon's Warbler. Good day. Rob Sparks RMBO Old Town Fort Collins -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Safeway Owls
Don't think my other post made it. Sorry if re-post Monday was up in Westminster and heard about some Great Horned Owls at the Safeway at Wadsworth and Chruch Ranch. Race over there. Sure enough, right over the front entrance up maybe 15 feet over the main entrance to store sat a pair of GHOs. Trying to get in some winks, but it was busy and lots of folks were watching the owls. Safeway lady taking a break, said the pair had been in the neighborhood for about five years, but first time she'd seen them at the store. thought maybe they had a nest just to the south by the prairie dog town, but thought maybe the tree blew over or something. It was quite a sight. William Bond -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Dozens of Evenging Grosbeaks, Teller County
After a year of rarely seeing them, several dozen evening grosbeaks are now permanent members of my backyard, stream and feeders every day. They sure make a racket. What a beautiful racket! All the usual so far. Still waiting on our first BTHummer. FOS, chipping sparrows and ruby-crowned kinglets at Manitou Lake on Monday. Jeff J Jones ( mailto:jjo...@jonestc.com jjo...@jonestc.com) Teller County - 8500' - Montane Woodlands -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Wash. Park Kingfisher returns
Birded this morning at Denver's Wash. Park. Our Belted Kingfisher is back, the Cormorants are consuming fish. eBird list included. Linda Powers Denver 21 Canada Goose 16 Mallard 4 Northern Shoveler 13 Double-crested Cormorant 6 Rock Pigeon 1 Belted Kingfisher 3 Northern Flicker 5 Barn Swallow 9 European Starling 7 Red-winged Blackbird 5 Great-tailed Grackle 3 House Finch 5 House Sparrow -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Admin Message/Please Read
COBirders, Before posting the same message a second or third time, please check the COBirds archives to check if your original post went through. Even though you might not have seen it, very often everyone else has already received it. The archives can be found at: http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds --- Rachel Hopper List Manager Ft. Collins Check out the CFO Website: www.cfo-link.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Golden-crowned Sparrow - Red Rocks
Brandon Percival's post about the Golden-crowned Sparrow at Tunnel Drive prompted me to check on the Golden-Crowned Sparrow at Red Rocks. This juvenile was first reported by Brown on Dec. 19, 2009. Although I don't have pictures to prove it, the bird is still present and is molting into adult plumage. The median crown stripe is definitely golden and the sides of the crown are definitely black ( but more splotchy with some white feathers compared to the pure black on the picture Brandon posted). I saw the Golden-crowned sitting on the platform feeder in the garden area at the Red Rocks Trading Post about 9:45 this morning. I scattered some seed early in the morning, did some other birding, then returned to see the Golden- crowned. There should be seed for a day or two. After tomorrow, I would suggest bringing some seed to scatter if you want to see the bird. Mike Henwood Morrison - Jefferson County -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] D.F.O. Monthly Meeting - April 26th
D.F.O. Monthly Meeting Nathan Pieplow -- A Refresher Course on Calls and Songs of Avian Spring Migrants Monday, April 26, 2010 Denver Musuem of Nature and Science 7:30 p.m. What ARE bird songs and how do they differ from bird calls? According to Frank B. Gill (1990) bird’s vocalizations allow them to “ mediate social interactions, particularly over long distances, at night, and in dense cover.” Clicks and clacks, chips, cheeps, buzzes, squawks, trills and peeps enable DFO members to tune in to the daily activities of our avian neighbors. It is often said that the best birders have the best trained ears. Some bird species have only one identifiable song. Some of the mimics such as the northern mockingbird have hundreds of songs. Some birds such as the wood thrush can control both sides of their trachea independently and thus can sing two songs at the same time. Similar abilities have been discovered in grebes, bitterns, ducks, sandpipers, and various other songbirds. In October of 2007 Ted Floyd told us about a small, cryptically colored Asian species in which the male and female sing one song simultaneously with each contributing only 50% of the notes. In 1956 P. Marler studied the vocalizations of Europe’s common chaffinch and identified the following: songs and subsongs, along with flight, social, injury, aggression, alarm, and courtship calls. In 1954 L. de Kiriline listened to a red-eyed vireo which sang 22,197 songs in a ten hour period (Does one question the sanity of the ornithologist?). For months DFO members have been listening to the conversations of Colorado’s winter residents from a skein of Canada geese passing overhead, to the neighborhood flock of bushtits in the leafless lilac bushes, to the black-capped chickadees and dark-eyed juncos at the feeder. In recent days however, a few tentative spring songs have been heard in the urban forest. A few mourning doves have been around all winter, but now some secret signal from nature seems to have awakened their biological clocks causing them to announce the early beginnings of spring with their soft, distinctive cooing calls. Have you grown weary of the winter vocalizations of our feathered friends? Do you long for the distant call of migrating sandhill cranes, for Roxborough ovenbirds calling from oak thickets, for the melodious notes of a Red Rocks Park canyon wren echoing off the red sandstone formations, or the magic sound of a MacGillivray's warbler emanating from a creekside willow carr? If so, then you are primed to spend an evening with Nathan who will discuss and play recordings of the songs of common spring migrants, providing a timely refresher course on the sounds of spring in Colorado, with an emphasis on telling bird sounds apart by using patterns. The presentation should give members some new ideas about what to focus on when listening to birds. Nathan will also touch on some questions of high-frequency hearing loss and how it affects birders. Nathan Pieplow is an avid bird sound recordist, the esteemed editor of the quarterly journal Colorado Birds, and an author of the Colorado Birding Trail. His blog which is found at Earbirding.com, is dedicated to recording, identifying, and interpreting bird sounds. He teaches writing and rhetoric at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Join us for a fascinating evening in preparation for one of Nature’s miracles: Spring migration! Future Meetings May through July - No DFO meetings August 23, 2010 - Ted Floyd and Nocturnal Migrations of Birds (the 4th Monday, not the last Monday) September 27, 2010 - Black Swifts in Colorado with Jason Beason of RMBO October 25, 2010 - Scott Rashid and Small Mountain Owls Directions The Denver Field Ornithologists monthly meetings are held in Ricketson Auditorium at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in City Park. These meetings are free and open to the public and occur on the 4th Monday of each month August through April (except December). Park on the north side of the Museum and walk around and enter through the Museum's west door. Plan to arrive by 7:15 p.m.; DOORS OPEN BY 7:00 AND ARE LOCKED AT 7:30 P.M. If late, you can enter through the security/volunteer door, but this does create problems for our hosts at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Submitted byChris A. Blakeslee - DFO Board Member Centennial, Colorado corvidc...@aol.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Yellow-crowned NIght Heron - El Paso Co
Hi COBirders, Yup, he's still there, right where they left him - Hansen Nature Center marsh area (12:30 Wednesday). Steve Brown Colorado Springs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT- HERON/ Larimer
Cobirders, An adult YELLOW-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON is on an obscure pond off Blue Spruce Dr. (e. side of the rd.) and Willox. First reported yesterday by Dave Elens it is still present today. The pond is visible from Blue Spruce looking east across an empty field directly across from a brown warehouse called CPP. Rachel Hopper Ft. Collins Sent from my iPhone Rachel Hopper Ft. Collins -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Common Loon
Bob Bierling 6940 E Girard Ave.#105 Denver Co 80224 3039443563 There's a beautiful male Common Loon in full breeding plumage in the lake 1/2 mile west from Frankton going to Castle Rock then North on Walker Rd about 1/4 mile Bob Nancy Bierling -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Dinosaur Ridge Hawks, Apr 20, 2010
Dinosaur Ridge Hawkwatch, Tuesday, April 20th Wind of roughly 10 mph, 100% cloud cover with a ceiling not much above Dinosaur Ridge and a temperature of 44 deg. to 54 deg. Fahrenheit brought several raptors. Hawk watchers Joe Lupfer, Karen Clark and Ashleigh Thompson were present. Joe Lupfer and Karen Clark obtained digital telephotos that helped in identifying some of the rapidly passing raptors. Twenty seven Tuesday Birders, led by Ann Bonnell also visited. Migrant Raptors, (22): Turkey Vulture1 Osprey2 Sharp-shinned Hawk4 Cooper's Hawk6 Northern Goshawk1 Broad-winged Hawk 2 American Kestrel4 Merlin1 Unidentified Accipiter1 Other Migrants: Broad-tailed Hummingbird3 Great-blue Heron1 Local birds: Red-tailed Hawks American Kestrel Scrub Jays (2 pairs must nest nearby) Bushtits (they must nest nearby) American Robin White-throated Swifts Other: The Juniper Titmouse did not visit One Broad-winged Hawk passed along the ridge going south! Paul Slingsby Jefferson County Wheat Ridge, Colorado -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Lamar update on 21April
Things are still somewhat slow in the Lamar area but there were a few additions today: Northern Parula (1 singing male on the move) Lamar Community College Woods (wet part of the north end) Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (2) Northern Cardinal (for sure 2 males and 1 female) Carolina Wren (1 heard today at the south end) Lark Sparrow (at least 2 at the south end of Memorial Drive near Quail Ridge Drive) Yellow-rumped Warbler (fair number of both types moving thru LCC Woods) Lincoln's Sparrow (2) far north end of LCC Woods Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Around Longmont
The rookeries are all still going strong, blue herons are on the nest; the egrets have shown up in the last couple of days at the St Vrain SP and taken most of the remaining empty nests (about 20). Highland Lake and Ish Reservoir have been filled so much that the shoreline trees are 5 feet deep - shoreline is non-existent for migrants, so seek elsewhere. Union Reservoir is also full to the brim, but did contain both grebes (about half Clark's), pelicans, lotsa coots, and the first pair of blue wing teal of the spring, looking good in their fresh feathers. J.D. (Birch) Birchmeier Longmont -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
[cobirds] Golden-crowned Sparrow - Red Rocks
Hi all, I showed up this afternoon at Red Rocks not even dreaming the Golden-crowned Sparrow was still around and was very surprised and pleased to see it on the platform feeder. Well done Mike! We saw no falcons other than kestrels, but did see a few Yellow-rumped Warblers. Never did see an Eastern Screech Owl, but thanks to the folks who responded with suggestions. Dick Filby Carbondale CO - Original Message - From: mike hawk...@aol.com To: cobirds@googlegroups.com Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 6:45 PM Subject: [cobirds] Golden-crowned Sparrow - Red Rocks Brandon Percival's post about the Golden-crowned Sparrow at Tunnel Drive prompted me to check on the Golden-Crowned Sparrow at Red Rocks. This juvenile was first reported by Brown on Dec. 19, 2009. Althoug h I don't have pictures to prove it, the bird is still present and is molting into adult plumage. The median crown stripe is definitely golden and the sides of the crown are definitely black ( but more splotchy with some white feathers compared to the pure black on the picture Brandon posted). I saw the Golden-crowned sitting on the platform feeder in the garden area at the Red Rocks Trading Post about 9:45 this morning. I scattered some seed early in the morning, did some other birding, then returned to see the Golden- crowned. There should be seed for a day or two. After tomorrow, I would suggest bringing some seed to scatter if you want to see the bird. Mike Henwood Morrison - Jefferson County -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Colorado Birds group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en
