Hi The Longspur challenge
Now that most empids have left Colorado, the different Warbling Vireo populations have slipped out of town and the confusing "Large White-headed Gulls" have yet to arrive, so how about traveling to the grasslands and start sorting through flocks of first year longspurs. I just did and it is a humbling experience. Most of the Pawnee Grasslands are quite dry and correspondingly it is difficult to find large flocks of longspurs. On Rd 114, just west of rd 49, the grass was longer and greener and I found a flock of perhaps 200 longspurs and all that I could detect were 1st year McCown's and Chestnut-collared with maybe a few Laplands. There were no distinguishing adult plumaged types that I could see. Because there were so skittish seldom could I get close enough to get a clear view of their faces or see any distinguishing body marks. While the tail patterns are distinctive between the three longspurs species, getting convincing views in flight I found quite challenging although at just the right viewing angle this is possible. At this time of year the young were just emitting flight calls. While the audio field guides suggest differences in flight calls between the species, I suspect this group was still trying to figure out what each was suppose to be saying, although some individuals did give the just "right" flight calls. The vast majority all sounded like they were imitating each other. I suspect there is insufficient recording of late September first year Longspurs birds to aid us in separating first year longspurs. Bob Righter Denver CO Sent from my iPad -- 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 https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
