On Sunday morning in Denver City Park (Denver Co.), I saw two familiar species that are quite rare for this spot less than 2 miles from downtown:
-- 5 Lark Sparrows (at least 1 adult and several of what Sibley's calls "drab 1st winter") were grazing in the lawns just east of Ferril Lake with mixed flocks of House Finch and Chipping Sparrow. The most recent of 3 previous LASP sightings there on eBird was in May 2013. -- 1 Lark Bunting (female or possible juvenile) was poking around amid rocks on the southeast shore of Ferril Lake, just 10 yards from the east end of the island. This is only City Park's second LABU sighting (the first was in May 2014). Sorry for the late post; it took me awhile and an assist (thanks John B.) to realize it was a LABU and not some odd HOFI, PUFI or CAFI. I'll post photos with my eBird list for Denver City Park - Ferril Lake. Speaking of islands, the waterbird rookeries in both City Park's Ferril and Duck lakes, which combined had nearly 1,000 birds of three large species at the height of summer, are nearly empty now. Just 21 Double-Crested Cormorants and 4 juvenile Black-Crowned Night Herons still linger at Duck, and only 4 Snowy Egrets and a few more DCCO's are hanging out at Ferril (zero BCNHs). Good birding, Patrick O'Driscoll Denver, Denver 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/CAMNEzJO0Zew1E2GNqNY8SfNDQUEb64t4snY8E2KALHuSm6XaLQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
