I'll get my kingbird shots along asap but I'm lad-handling right now
so won't be till a bit later today. Most excellent adventure, all!
Thanks for coordinating, Ted, & thanks also for compiling such a great
trip report.
Bill Schmoker
-bill.schmo...@gmail.com-
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 4, 2009, at 7:56 AM, antejos <ante...@juno.com> wrote:
>
>
> Groupo de Fox Ranch,
>
> I have been thinking about the strange kingbird too. I looked at the
> shade of gray on the head and hindneck over-and-over, and at the
> time I
> was thinking something was not right for a typical WEKI. Photo boys,
> please send any photos of that bird this way too, especially if you
> have
> anything with at least part of the back...Thanks...Bill
>
> Western Kingbird. A tricky adult. This mangled, unmolted bird had
> extensive yellow well up onto the breast, brownish-olive upperparts,
> and
> a decent bill. And it gave occasional "pick" notes. But it also had an
> unmistakable white shaft on one (but not both) of the rectrices, also
> visible from above as a narrow white border to the outer web of the
> feather; and the upper surface of the tail was quite dark black. So I
> think it was a Western doing an okay impersonation of a Couch's.
>
>
>
> On Sun, 4 Oct 2009 03:14:10 -0700 Ted Floyd <tedfloy...@hotmail.com>
> writes:
>>
>>
>> Hello, Birders.
>>
>> Bill Maynard, Bryan Patrick, Bill Schmoker, and I visited the Fox
>> Ranch, Yuma County, yesterday, Saturday, October 3rd. Highlights for
>> us were Eastern Phoebe, Cassin's Kingbird, Palm Warbler, 4 Field
>> Sparrows, and at least 6 Le Conte's Sparrows. Also of note were a
>> problematic Western Kingbird, a possible Sedge Wren (heard well,
>> seen very poorly), and several "interesting" meadowlarks. Other odds
>> and ends out there: Wood Duck, Wild Turkey, Barn Owl, Eastern
>> Screech-Owl, Red-headed Woodpecker, and -carolinensis-
>> White-breasted Nuthatch. Migrant Lincoln's Sparrows and Western
>> Meadowlarks were all over the place. In the "montane/autumnal"
>> category were Townsend's Solitaire, Cedar Waxwing, Oregon Junco,
>> Pink-sided Junco, and Pine Siskin.
>>
>> Just off the Fox Ranch, at one of the Burnidge Playas along US-36
>> between Joes and Idalia, we saw 2 McCown's Longspurs and about 60
>> Chestnut-collared Longspurs. On the drive back, at Last Chance,
>> Washington County, we were able to track down the previously
>> reported Roller's Black-cowled Yellowface; there was a Brown
>> Thrasher at Last Chance, too.
>>
>> Here are some more details from the Fox Ranch, if anybody's
>> interested:
>>
>> Wood Duck. 8, in little groups along the Arickaree River.
>>
>> Ring-necked Pheasant. 7, including a tailess male, in the
>> tallgrass.
>>
>> Wild Turkeys. 6, including 1 doing a Laughing Falcon impersonation.
>>
>> Northern Bobwhite. 0, although a European Starling did a fine
>> impersonation.
>>
>> Sharp-shinned Hawk. A beautiful adult doing a Le Conte's Sparrow
>> impersonation; flushed it at a distance of ~10 feet from a reedbed
>> along the Arickaree.
>>
>> Ferruginous Hawk. A regal adult impersonating a regal adult of the
>> species.
>>
>> Barn Owl. 1, making the rounds in the prairie just south of the
>> river.
>>
>> Eastern Screech-Owl. At least 3 along the river. By the way, fine
>> views at dawn of Mercury (a planet, not a bird).
>>
>> Red-headed Woodpecker. 2 still hanging on; getting a bit late.
>>
>> wood-pewee, sp. No particular reason to say it wasn't a Western, but
>> who knows? October wood-pewees in far-eastern Colorado are always
>> worthy of being conjectured about.
>>
>> Eastern Phoebe. 1 calling along the river.
>>
>> Cassin's Kingbird. A nice adult.
>>
>> Western Kingbird. A tricky adult. This mangled, unmolted bird had
>> extensive yellow well up onto the breast, brownish-olive upperparts,
>> and a decent bill. And it gave occasional "pick" notes. But it also
>> had an unmistakable white shaft on one (but not both) of the
>> rectrices, also visible from above as a narrow white border to the
>> outer web of the feather; and the upper surface of the tail was
>> quite dark black. So I think it was a Western doing an okay
>> impersonation of a Couch's.
>>
>> White-breasted Nuthatch. Nothing problematic about these 2. They
>> said YANK YANK as unambiguously as possible.
>>
>> Rock Wren. 1 on a rock. Fancy that.
>>
>> House Wren. 2 lingering.
>>
>> -Cistothorus- wrens. 1 was a washed out Marsh that called nicely; 1
>> was silent and just not seen well enough; and 1 called like a Sedge
>> from a nice dry pasture but also was not seen well enough.
>>
>> Sprague's Pipit. None. We got skunked on this species for the first
>> time in 4 years. It was a wet spring and summer out there, and maybe
>> the habitat wasn't as good this year as in recent years. Or maybe
>> the birds just weren't there for whatever reason, or possibly--quite
>> possibly--they were there but simply undetected.
>>
>> Ruby-crowned Kinglet. 3 in the plantings by the field station.
>>
>> Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. 1 lingering at the field station.
>>
>> Townsend's Solitaire. At least 3 at the field station.
>>
>> Cedar Waxwing. 1 adult and 1 immature at the field station.
>>
>> Orange-crowned Warbler. 10, mainly at the field station.
>>
>> Yellow-rumped Warbler. 4 Myrtles, 9 Audubon'ses, and 1 apparent
>> intergrade, throughout.
>>
>> Palm Warbler. 1 of the nominate ("Western") subspecies near the
>> prairie-woodland transition downstream a ways from the field
>> station.
>>
>> Wilson's Warbler. 1 still at the field station.
>>
>> Field Sparrow. 4, working their way generally south from the
>> floodplain tallgrass.
>>
>> Ammodramus sparrows. At least 14 individuals in this genus; perhaps
>> more like 20, total. We had 2 main gatherings, one consisting mainly
>> of Grasshopper Sparrows, the other consisting mainly or entirely of
>> Le Conte's Sparrows. At one point we had 5 Grasshopper Sparrows
>> perched on barbed wire; there may well have been others, but we had
>> 5 in view at once. The definite Le Conte's Sparrows were in a field
>> of Erigonum, Bouteloua, and other grasses and forbs; we had 3 on one
>> side of the field, 3 on the other side, and others in between that
>> may well have been additional birds. Of course, we had a few that
>> got away, and 2 of them intrigued us for looking neither like
>> Grasshopper nor Le Conte's Sparrows; that happens.
>>
>> Lincoln's Sparrow. We counted at least 19. We heard a number giving
>> their distinctive, fine, buzzy flight calls, perhaps indicating
>> birds on active diurnal migration.
>>
>> Other sparrows. 3 Spotted Towhees, 9 Chipping Sparrows, 15 Vesper
>> Sparrows, 12 Savannah Sparrows, 6 Song Sparrows, many "Gambel's" and
>> a few "Mountain" White-crowned Sparrows, 2 Oregon Juncos, and 1
>> Pink-sided Junco.
>>
>> Meadowlarks. We tallied 166, but that has to be an undercount, as it
>> seems as though we were forever putting up flocks of 5-25+ birds.
>> Lots were giving flight calls, and there was a pretty obvious
>> movement of birds southward, so they were on diurnal migration. We
>> had nothing definitive for Eastern, but several birds gave us pause
>> (then flew away or turned around or something), and Eastern has been
>> recorded out at the Fox Ranch. If you're the sort of person who
>> loves scanning through flocks for the stray Laughing Gull or Glossy
>> Ibis, you'd be in hog heaven at the Fox Ranch.
>>
>> Pine Siskin. 1, flying due west above the river.
>>
>> Thanks to William Burnidge (Project Director with The Nature
>> Conservancy in Colorado) and Nathan Andrews (Fox Ranch Manager) for
>> their hospitality and for their super work on this outstanding
>> birding hotspot in eastern Colorado. Please note that the Fox Ranch,
>> a working cattle ranch, is private property; access is by written
>> permission only.
>>
>> -------------------------------
>>
>> Ted Floyd
>> tedfloy...@hotmail.com
>> Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
>>
>> -------------------------------
>>
>> Ted Floyd
>> Editor, Birding
>>
>> -------------------------------
>>
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>>
>
>
> Bill Maynard
> Colorado Springs
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