Some posts of 2-3 days ago suggest that Cobirders might enjoy hearing about Urling's and my Birdathon quest on Friday. Starting at our Willow Lake Drive patch: A frenzy of Violet-green Swallows! A dozenswarmed above a conifer forest like a throng of bees. A couple of pods ofTurkey Vultures circled above us. We counted more species in our Franktownpatch than we have seen this year. (We did get up earlier than usual, andwalked both gullies that intersect our road instead of only one.We heard our first-of-the-year WarblingVireo (“how do you know that I’m here?”) and listened to and saw singingWhite-crowned Sparrows (the Colorado mountain subspecies), and saw one Wigeonon the pond. The inevitable flock of Turkeys prowled under our feeders. And weenjoyed our usual scrub-oak denizens: Scrub-Jays, Chickadees, Nuthatches, HouseFinches with their delightful song, 7 active and warbling Black-headedGrosbeaks (they like suet cakes), and 8 Spotted Towhees. We spied an elusiveGreen-ttailed Towhee, a Catbird,. One flicker with a red stripe on the back ofhis neck as well as a red whisker—probably a hybrid. Then we headed for Castlewood Canyon wherewe hoped to find White-throated Swifts; we didn’t hear or see any, as wehaven’t so far this year. On the Winkler Ranch south of the Park we saw 13 TreeSwallows and two pairs of Western and two of Mountain Bluebirds, all claimingnest boxes. Next we drove to Louviers, hoping tobuttress the list. At the pond there we saw 8 Wood Ducks, a Gadwall, and 3Shovelers. After lunch and a tour through the Louviers woods (Catbird, YellowWarbler, House Wren) we drove the streets hoping to score a House Sparrow. Westopped at a terrific feeder which sported a passel of House Finches (wecounted 24 in the town), plus a couple of Mourning and a couple Collared-Doves.And, a male Evening Grosbeak called from a pine tree that towered over thefeeders. But no House Sparrows! After driving every street (and stopped only bya couple to check if we had a problem who turned out to feed birds, we left.Then, at the last building in town, a church, we heard and saw some elusiveHouse Sprarows. Only one trash bird left to find: RockPigeon. None in Louviers, none along the road, none that we could find ineither Castle Rock or Franktown!The gravel pit on Castlewood Canyon Roaddid have more ducks (including 17 Shovelers, and four shorebirds scurrying on asand spit way across the water, a challenging scope view. We called themKilldeer & Spotted Sandpiper. Hugh
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