I got a call from John Vanderpoel to join him in Eastern Boulder County this afternoon as he was having good results with flocks of Horned Larks and longspurs along the roadsides. Spectacular would be a better word. I joined up with John at the intersection of Oxford Rd. and 115th St. just north of Panama Reservoir. On my way I had already seen flocks of sparrows including Vesper and Savannah alongside Oxford. When I met up with John, we quickly started picking out McCowns Longspurs from the Horned Lark flocks. We continued south along 115th to Panama Reservoir where there was a Sage Thrasher at the gate.
Going back north we found more Longspurs including a few Chestnut-collared and we were joined by Peter Gent. We backtracked for the thrasher, with no luck, but the edge of Panama produced 2 Greater Yellowlegs, 1 Lesser and a pair of Wilson's Phalaropes. After working back and forth along Oxford, 115th and 119th, we went north toward Pipit Rd. where the muddy dirt roads turned out to be devoid of larks/longspurs. But that was alright because right on a small stick on the shoulder of Pipit Rd. was a Short-eared Owl that let us drive by on the other side of the road-just feet away. Turning north toward the St. Vrain Creek, we found both Mountain and Western Bluebirds, 2 or 3 Say's Phoebes and several dozen White-crowned Sparrows. Elsewhere along 119th we picked up a Merlin (one of two, it would seem as we later saw a much paler bird). When we worked back to Oxford Rd. between 119th and 115th, we picked up the flock of McCowns once more. This time however, we noticed a female Lapland Longspur in the field to the north. About that time I found a bird with straw-colored, unstreaked flanks that showed white outer tail feathers when it flew. I identified it as a female (or basic male) Smith's Longspur. As the afternoon wore on, we kept at it joined variously by Maggie Boswell, Todd Deininger, Bill Schmoker, Steve Larson, Christian Nunes and Mike Blatchley. All told I would put the longspur numbers at McCowns-60, Chestnut-collared-12, Lapland 1 or 2 and Smith's-1. Steve commented that given the weather conditions, there is a good chance that some or all of these birds might be present tomorrow as well. Bill Kaempfer Boulder -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
