Hey, everybody. Hannah Floyd and I enjoyed off-and-on Boulder County birding during much of today, Friday, July 21.
We started off at Crane Hollow Road near Hygiene, which had a singing *dickcissel,* a singing *bobolink,* a silent *eastern phoebe,* and several *eastern kingbirds.* Next, where the St. Vrain River goes under 63rd/61st St., we heard a *red-eyed vireo* and a *savannah sparrow,* and we saw a couple of *gray catbirds.* Then we joined up with the American Birding Association's Camp Colorado, which had assembled at Rabbit Mountain. The non-avian distractions were considerable: colorful and ginormous orthopterans, divers meadowhawks, scattered fritillaries, toads, venomous snakes, hulking beetles, svelte robber flies, and more. But we managed to squeeze in a bit of birding, with such sightings as a *canyon wren,* several *blue grosbeaks,* a couple of *blue-gray gnatsnatchers,* a handful of not-a-warbler-anymore *yellow-breasted chats,* and, on the drive out, a magnificent *peregrine falcon.* Then it was over to Old South Road near Lyons, where we saw *white-throated swifts,* several glorious adult male *lazuli buntings,* widely scattered *cordilleran flycatchers,* a cooperative male *black-chinned hummingbird,* and a disappearing *American dipper.* An eight-spotted forester lumbered across the road, and two-tailed swallowtails were prolific. Then we went to Larimer County. Then Hannah and I, having said goodbye to Camp Colorado, returned to blessèd Boulder County, but not without first incurring the wrath of an impressive Larimer County hailstorm. Anyhow, back in Boulder County, we studied hummingbirds at the Fawn Brook Inn, Allenspark, where we saw a few *rufous hummingbirds* and a mighty company of *broad-tailed hummingbirds,* including a beautiful leucistic individual. Our last bird of the afternoon, on the drive down Route 7 toward Lyons, was a juvenile dipper standing on a rock in Middle St. Vrain Creek. See below for pix of the peregrine, the leucistic broad-tail, a "normal" broad-tail, the Rte 7 dipper, and a Rabbit Mountain *lark sparrow. *Lots more of course on Facebook, including insects and herps and such. <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vtAGS8bCuOU/WXLhyDw-38I/AAAAAAAAWKw/EBg2cKWGECUSUwBjQVBBcfI5Fhng9wmnQCLcBGAs/s1600/01%2BPeregrine%2BFalcon.png> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-67A73-TH-Oo/WXLh42V1aCI/AAAAAAAAWK0/9IByTcqOTnQtyL54EF0_5lF0aAHG4z0NwCLcBGAs/s1600/02%2BBroad-tailed%2BHummingbird.png> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ey91z3YY4g4/WXLh81AXzCI/AAAAAAAAWK4/jQEHJhnHDHwufbh_M6Za2wV8mZkxys4QgCLcBGAs/s1600/03%2BBroad-tailed%2BHummingbird.png> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-44bzxsbmfak/WXLiA_Nk2pI/AAAAAAAAWK8/mhFj77ocG84plB2xcR4AgMV7Kh8DeXWIwCLcBGAs/s1600/04%2BAmerican%2BDipper.jpg> <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0BcB60uY9yU/WXLiE4yA_ZI/AAAAAAAAWLA/nDGtbONjFHg0zk9N3_sNcipjMyQ4wz8pQCLcBGAs/s1600/05%2BLark%2BSparrow.png> Ted Floyd Lafayette, Boulder County -- 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/87ad3a80-c176-428e-a36a-64ec4fd29ae3%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
