It was a great day for birding in Huerfano County. We started in our own yard, then headed out Valley Road to Lathrop State Park. Stopped back briefly at the house before heading to Cuchara for some final clean-up on a job and walked the Spring Creek Trail for a short ways. Then we headed back to Valley Road.
In our yard were the usual assortment of: Gray Catbirds Rufous Hummingbirds Black-chinned Hummingbirds Broad-tailed Hummingbirds Lesser Goldfinch American Goldfinch Red-naped Sapsucker Valley Road held some of the best birding of the day starting with: 12 American Kestrals all in one small area...they were there again this evening All along the road were hundreds of Lark Sparrows 6 Lark Buntings were seen on the fence line...every time we thought we might get closer...they flew! (this is a new Huerfano County bird for us) We hit a very nice mixed flock and saw: Black-headed Grosbeak (female) Western Tanager (female Blue Grosbeak (female) Yellow Warbler Tennessee Warbler BLUE-WINGED WARBLER was the surprise of the day and another new Huerfano County and also new Colorado bird for us...We have seen Blue-winged Warblers in Oklahoma, Costa Rica and Honduras...but never here! Yellow-breasted Chat next came American Goldfinches Lesser Goldfinches a lone House Finch Mourning Doves American Flickers A lone American Robin Numerous American Crows a large group of Common Ravens just a few Turkey Vultures...sigh...I miss my Turkey Vultures! 3 Western Scrub Jays Eastern Kingbirds Western Kingbirds just 2 Mountain Bluebirds a young Red-tailed Hawk was "kiting" Western Wood-Peewees Next it was on to Lathrop to search for that Least Bittern...no luck on that Chipping Sparrows took the place of the Lark Sparrows in abundance 2 more Western Scrub Jays were seen 2 Great Egrets were present at Horseshoe Reservoir Double-crested Cormorants a lone Spotted Sandpiper Osprey were cruising both lakes a lone Ring-billed Gull Pied-billed Grebe we "re-located" the Green Heron about 15 ft west of where we saw it last weekend...does that count for "re-location" ;-) Yellow Warblers Black-capped Chickadees Juniper Titmouse another lone House Finch more Western and Eastern Kingbirds a family of Mallards 3 Great Blue Herons Next it was off to Cuchara where we saw Red-breasted Nuthatches Mountain Chickadees More Western Wood-Peewees Williamson Sapsucker more Northern Flickers Ruby-crowned Kinglets (heard) Golden-crowned Kinglets (heard) Yellow-rumped Warblers Steller's Jay Lots of American Robins One Golden Eagle was sitting on the rock wall at the gap Late this afternoon we headed back out Valley Road...camera with us this time in one Box Elder we saw: 30+ Lark Sparrows a pair of Western Tanager a pair of Blue Grosbeak Mourning doves a lone American Robin Lesser Goldfinch American Goldfinch Tennessee Warbler we failed to re-locate the Lark Buntings and Blue-winged Warbler (we really wanted photos!) We really had a great day! Polly Wren and Paul Neldner La Veta Huerfano 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. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
