Todd Deininger and I set out early this morning to bird our way to Lamar. 14 hours later we arrived, so as you might expect the birding was pretty good and the weather, though hot and sunny was not overly windy making for good birding.
Our first notable stop was in Kit Carson (Cheyenne County) where the water treatment ponds were a bit of a disappointment as they have been sanitized and plastic lined. As least we got Canada Goose there for my county list (the last time I tried there a year ago I dipped and could only manage Brown Pelican-go figure). Much better was a pretty northerly Scaled Quail. The riparian area on the old road out of town to the south produced a Lincoln's Sparrow. We next made it to Eads in Kiowa County which always seems to do well by us. Today the courthouse grounds produced two Summer Tanagers (and a Western). Then we set out to find what the DOW website described as a "kid's fishing pond" in town. This pond, Jackson's Pond on Cactus Drive south of town was an impressive find. The main pond is really pretty large-about 300 yards long and 50 yards across with loads of rushes at both ends but little shore today. It was not particularly birdy, but undoubtedly is at times. There was a man present mowing the grassy areas (which might have put off any waterfowl) and he invited us to continue on a track to the SE which scaled a hill overlooking Eads water treatment plant and led to a second secluded pond that was pretty birdy with blackbirds, ducks (including our only Ring-necked of the day) and phalaropes. So nothing really remarkable, but a spot worth visiting. >From Eads we headed east to Sheridan Lake (bone dry) and then south to Holly. >In Holly we headed out to the cemetery NE of town. Just before arriving, we >crossed a flowing, wooded ditch that was a bit like a mini-Tempel Grove! To >wit, we had two Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, one White-eyed Vireo, Wilson's >Warbler, Warbling Vireo (they were present in just about every appropriate >spot) and a Cedar Waxwing. I convinced Todd to keep going south and we got all the way to Burchfield SWA (which I like, but no one else seems to bother with). There we were in pretty extreme SE Colorady (1.5 miles from Kansas and maybe 25 miles from Oklahoma), but it was 95 degrees and 4:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Location won out over time and temp-we had Northern Parula, Northern Waterthrush, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Barn Owl, Hairy Woodpecker for our efforts. The way back took us past Turks Pond (zip inside, but the pond along the road outside had a Ring-billed Gull (that's a !!! in Baca County) and a Long-billed Dowitcher. Then to Two Buttes which was absolutely full of water! Not the ponds below the dam but the main reservoir! Hiking into the west end (little white lie) we turned up lots ducks and shorebirds and even a pair of courting Double-crested Cormorants and a pair of White-faced Ibis. (Has the state somehow been able to stash water in Two Buttes so it doesn't have to flow out of Bonny?) It was a great day, and tomorrow the birding is supposed to get good. Steve Mlodinow promised me. Bill Kaempfer Boulder -- 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.
