COBirders, I had until noonish to bird today so I decided to head east to the Flagler area. It was well worth it and one of the best days of birding I have ever had around there. Despite the windy conditions it was amazingly birdie. I should have known there were going to be some weird things today when along highway 24 about 6 miles before Limon there was an OSPREY perched atop a telephone pole just before 7:00 a.m. This was technically in Elbert county.
Next stop was Flagler city park where I thought things were going to be very hard to come by in the heavy SSW winds. To my surprise there were: 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet 4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets 3 Orange-crowned Warblers 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler 2 Townsend's Warblers 4 Wilson's Warblers 3 Dark-eyed Junco's (all Pink-sided) Plus the usual suspects. Next I headed towards Flager SWA. There is a a field that had some water running in it just east of the park that also had at least 9 MCCOWN'S LONGSPURs. Between two different corrals I counted 278 YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS (I actually did the counting on my way out). Where the real action started was once I got to the SWA. Here is what I had (it would have been good to have more people as I could not keep up with everything): Sorry for the long list but seemed appropriate to list out most everything I had around the SWA 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks (both imm.) 1 Copper's Hawk (ad. female) 17 Killdeer 1 Spotted Sandpiper 3 Solitary Sandpipers 1 Lesser Yellowlegs 2 Sanderlings 3 Western Sandpipers 1 Least Sandpiper 4 Baird's Sandpipers 2 Pectoral Sandpipers 1 Wilson's Snipe 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker 1 Red-naped Sapsucker 1 Sapsucker species (Red-bellied chased it off before I could see it) 1 Sapsucker species (flew by and I did not see where it landed) 1 Hammond's Flycatcher (about the only thing below the damn) 1 BLUE-HEADED VIREO (extremely bright individual) 1 Warbling Vireo 4 Tree Swallows 1 VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW (in with the swallow flock that dropped in while I was there as there were no swallows over the water when I arrived) 4 Barn Swallows 12 Red-breasted Nuthatches 1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (not sure what subspecies, never made a noise) 14! Ruby-crowned Kinglets (they seemed to be all over) 4 Eastern Bluebirds 2 Townsend's Solitaires 2 Hermit Thrushes 4 Gray Catbirds 22 American Pipits 3 Cedar Waxwings 4 Chestnut-collared Longspurs 1 Tennessee Warbler 20+ Orange-crowned Warblers 1 Nashville Warbler 7 Yellow-rumped Warblers 3 Townsend's Warblers 2 Palm Warblers (both western) 1 Ovenbird 2 Common Yellowthroats 15+ Wilson's Warblers 1 Green-tailed Towhee 7 Spotted Towhee 1 EASTERN TOWHEE 70+ Chipping Sparrows 8 Clay-colored Sparrows (watch out for the bright Chipping Sparrows) 0 Field Sparrows (I thought for sure amongst all the sparrows today there would be at least one FISP) 20+ Vesper Sparrows 10+ Savannah Sparrows 10 Song Sparrows 8 Lincoln's Sparrows 2 White-throated Sparrow 50+ White-crowned Sparrows 20+ Dark-eyed Junco's (Pink-sided, Oregon and Slate) Then as I was headed back to the town of Flagler to head home I had yet another surprise. Just west of town there were two PINYON JAYs. They were just lazily moving around and calling occasionally. Certainly not something I was expecting. I think the Violet-green Swallow was a little crazier than anything else today but putting everything together made for a great day around Flagler. ----- Mark Peterson Colorado Springs -- 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.
