Hello, Birders.
Hannah and Andrew and I had a nice time these past few days at the 9th annual
High Plains Snow Goose Festival, based out of Lamar, Prowers County. Quick
summary: wild weather, good birds, great company. Here's some additional detail:
Friday, Feb. 25th. In the morning, Hannah and Andrew and I explored southern
KIOWA COUNTY. The weather was epic: sleet, dense freezing fog, 100% relative
humidity, limited visibility ("limited" is generous), an east wind, and the
Kaempfer-corrected temperature holding steady at around minus six. First stop
was NeeNoshe Reservoir, which we couldn't see. (Seth Gallagher later reported
seeing water there, but I'm skeptical!) On getting out of the car, we heard a
distant rumbling, then closer, then closer...cranes. Couldn't see a danged
thing, but we estimated at least 10 and probably not more than 1,000. Finally
the birds came into view, spectacularly so, emerging one by one from the
freezing fog, in sustained flight just above the trees. Our count was almost
exactly the geometric mean of the lower and upper bounds we'd put on the
estimated flock size: 99 SANDHILL CRANES, 98 of them apparent Lessers, 1 an
obvious Greater. The other reservoirs in the immediate area (NeeGronda,
NeeSopah, NeeNelson...) were similarly invisible and/or nonexistent, but we
remain transfixed by the ice-and-fog-shrouded landscape. An adult GOLDEN
EAGLE--one of 11 raptor species we saw during our visit to southeastern
Colorado--holding its ground practically at arm's reach on a dead snag was
memorable and, in truth, a bit unnerving.
Friday, Feb. 25th. In the afternoon, Hannah and Andrew and I accompanied the
dinosaur tour (really!) at John Martin Reservoir State Park, BENT COUNTY.
Conditions were much the same as they had been earlier in the day up in Kiowa
County: a bit less fog, but a bit more wind, and still the same temperature. A
nice bird just below the dam at John Martin Reservoir was an ice-blue adult
male richardsoni MERLIN slicing through the fog. And up on the dam itself, we
saw a great throng of mergansers--including decent numbers of RED-BREASTED
MERGANSERS and HOODED MERGANSERS--bobbing amid the whitecaps out on the
reservoir. Farther out were various other forms, flying and swimming, that
might have been geese or gulls or something, or perhaps pteranodons and
ichthyosaurs on a great inland sea stretching way beyond the western horizon;
with the limited visibility, it was impossible to disprove any of the preceding.
Saturday, Feb. 26th. Hannah and Andrew and I made several short jaunts to
"Warbler Woods," that wonderful stretch of trees and shrubs along Willow Creek
in Lamar, PROWERS COUNTY. It was hazy and cold with dense hoar-frost in the
morning, then sunny and warm by noon. Highlights for us included at least 4
radiant NORTHERN CARDINALS, 1 fluttery TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE, 1 flighty MYRTLE
WARBLER, 1 fly-over PINE SISKIN (I think we figured out where Boulder County's
last remaining Pine Siskin has disappeared to...), 2 chippering BROWN CREEPERS,
175+ improbably silent GREAT-TAILED GRACKLES, and a sweetly singing
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE. Dave Leatherman's head most near exploded on news of
the chickadee (reported by other parties, too, by the way); the species is a
mega-rarity in Lamar, he says. As is usually the case at Warbler Woods, we
missed a few good'ns; that's because there's so much great habitat in there,
perfect for the birds to hide in. Anyhow, Seth Gallagher and his gang saw a
Brown Thrasher that Hannah and Andrew and I missed, and Cara Stiles and others
saw a Red-bellied Woodpecker that likewise eluded Hannah and Andrew and me.
Saturday, Feb. 26th. With ~40 companions, Hannah and Andrew and I visited Two
Buttes State Wildlife Area, BACA COUNTY, in the afternoon. The temperature was
in the mid-60s, and it was partly cloudy with a bit of a southwest wind. The
place was spooky: the reservoir bone-dry, a recently erected monument to
someone who fell from a high sandstone cliff, and those staring hoodoos. And
especially this: no fewer than four squinch-faced porcupines, all in view at
once, close up in a row of cottonwoods right along the trail. For me, that's
three more porcupines than I'd ever before seen at one time. Honestly, the
birding was exceedingly slow, but we enjoyed several strange spectacles: a
spindly GREAT BLUE HERON standing on a tall cliff in the middle of absolute
nowhere, for example, and a stunning drake CANVASBACK, looking awfully lost,
paddling about the miniature bayou (bayou? well, what else would you call it??)
downstream from the dam. In the bleak desert (sorry, "High Plains") southwest
of the state wildlife area, we were treated to the sight of several FERRUGINOUS
HAWKS, those emblems of desolate places in western North America.
Sunday, Feb. 27th. With Jeff Gordon and Liz Gordon, Hannah and Andrew and I
explored Higbee Valley Road, paralleling the Purgatoire River, OTERO COUNTY, in
the late morning. The homestead at 37.7177968 North, 103.5175234 West was
delightfully birdy, with such goodies as a second-calendar-year YELLOW-BELLIED
SAPSUCKER, at least 4 EASTERN BLUEBIRDS, an unexpected LINCOLN'S SPARROW, and a
second-calendar year (probably male) HARRIS'S SPARROW. There were MOUNTAIN
BLUEBIRDS aplenty here, and indeed everywhere along Higbee Valley Road. At one
point, we put up a flock of at least 200; and we saw easily more than 500
during the course of our wanderings along Higbee Valley Road. Also numerous
were WILD TURKEYS; we saw at least 200. Elsewhere in the canyon, we saw 1 early
(or overwintering?) SAY'S PHOEBE and 1 CANYON TOWHEE. And a dead (presumably
long-dead) Common Poorwill. Oh. I almost forgot. The weather: It was mostly
sunny, with temps in the mid-60s, and just a bit of haze. I'd've called it
perfect for roadrunners, but not this time... Mind you, I'm not complaining:
Higbee Valley Road always produces, and so it was today. Something else: If you
visit, bird from the road and don't trespass. One last thing: In Comanche
National Grassland, a bit north of Higbee Valley Road, we saw a nice CHIHUAHUAN
RAVEN.
Sunday, Feb. 27th. In the mid-afternoon, Hannah and Andrew and I explored a
couple of reservoirs in southern CROWLEY COUNTY. Lake Meredith must have an
awful lot of fish, because we saw an awful lot of piscivorous birds there: at
least 12 BALD EAGLES, at least 40 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS, 7 DOUBLE-CRESTED
CORMORANTS, and a great throng of Mergus mergansers (both species) and
goldeneyes. Also: 2 bright definitive alternate CALIFORNIA GULLS, a drake
CINNAMON TEAL, a handful of ROSS'S GEESE and several mid-size flocks of SNOW
GEESE. Oh yeah! Snow Geese!...Snow Goose Festival...this past weekend, they
seemed to be everywhere but Lamar proper. Go figure. Anyhow, in the immense
feedlots just north of Lake Meredith were incomprehensibly multitudinous swarms
of RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS, every now and then rising up in great clouds, like
smoke from a wildfire. Finally, over at nearby Lake Henry, it was getting
windy, overcast, and quite a bit cooler. There we saw a single AMERICAN PIPIT,
right at the water's edge. It was a bit early, I would say, for a migrant, so
I'm guessing it's a bird that wintered locally.
For sure, we're already looking forward to the 10th annual High Plains Snow
Goose Festival, presumably in late February of 2012. Details will appear here,
in due course: http://www.highplainssnowgoose.com
-------------------------------
Ted Floyd
Editor, Birding
Blog: http://tinyurl.com/2g2staq
Twitter: http://tinyurl.com/2ejzlzv
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/2wkvwxs
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