I joined Toni Rautus and Paul Slingsby for a run up to Crow Valley this morning. This trip was from the "A bad day birding beats a good day working" school of ornithology, as recent sunny, pleasant weather didn't seem to bode well for any kind of birdiness. Once again and as usual- wrong. As we dismounted our vehicles adjacent to the group picnic shelter, one of the ubiquitous kingbirds chased something out of its tree. Bright male Lazuli Bunting. A favorable omen. Still setting the expectation bar quite low, we set off down the south fenceline, and were immediately rewarded with a Black-throated Gray Warbler and a female American Redstart, each a highlight in a tapestry of common warblers, goldfinches, Blue Jays, pewees, backed by a meadowlark soundtrack. Not bad. Heading back down the fenceline to the west, we had a Gray-cheeked Thrush, a male American Redstart and a Deb Carstensen, in more or less that order. We enjoyed the former two and invited the latter to join us. After running through an assortment of Bullock's Orioles, Yellow, Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Black-headed Grosbeak and a Cordilleran Flycatcher (am I allowed to call it that in the spring?), we turned up a Northern Waterthrush. Hmm. This may not be so bad after all.....we made the turn toward the campground and came up with a Virginia's Warbler, an Orchard Oriole, a Western Tanager and 765 more Western Kingbirds. A few easterns began to appear, mostly toward the north end of the campground. Turf war, eastern Jets versus western Sharks? Moving up toward the northwest corner (the water is higher than ever, and since we forgot our waterwings, the southwest corner was off the table), we watched a MacGillivray's Warbler do some very accommodating flitting among the tangles and floating tumbleweeds, and followed up with a Black-and-white Warbler. Then things got interesting. Amid the cacophony of mocker and thrasher yak, we spotted a Tennessee Warbler working the willows and some other birders got us on a Magnolia Warbler. While trying to refind the Mag and figure out a mystery warbler in the treetops (we called it a female Virginia's and beat a hasty retreat- why won't some of these things fly away when you need them to?), we stumbled over an adjacent Nashville. Not a bad haul for a slow day. For the cherry on the sundae, Paul spotted an American Bittern standing in the grass by the flooded areas to the north. Deb then headed off to try to photograph the bittern, and Paul departed for Denver, where a family function was waiting. Family function. That guy really needs to get his priorities straight. Toni and I decided to sample the usual Weld County Ponds and marshes on the way home. Along the way we added Loggerhead Shrike, Burrowing Owl, and a few of the other usual suspects. Shorebirds were not plentiful, but 59 Pond had dowitchers, stilts, avocets and Stilt Sandpipers. At Loloff the phalarope numbers were down somewhat but there were still a lot of Wilson's and a few red-necks (phalaropes, not golf cart vigilantes). At Latham we had (heard only) Sora and Virginia Rail, a Great Egret, and the final surprise of the day in the grassy marshes- six Whimbrel. I don't think I've seen that many together before. Without a formal count (eBird chores later), we ended the day somewhere around a hundred species. That'll teach me to dabble in meteorology.......
Norm Lewis Lakewood, CO -- 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 cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/8D141F5F5BED53B-1FB4-2D866%40webmail-vm011.sysops.aol.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
