I tried to wait until all the good birders and birds had passed through SE Colo before I visited, but I ran into a few of both this weekend anyway. Highlights in the Carrizo and Cottonwood Canyon area (Baca County) were Long-billed Curlew, Rufous-crowned Sparrow, skylarking Cassin's sparrow, Black-throated Sparrow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Ladder-backed Woodpecker, Canyon Wren, Bewick's Wren, Blue Grosbeak, Black-chinned Hummingbird, a Golden Eagle being harassed by a Chihuahuan Raven (amazing size difference), Juniper Titmouse, Cassin's Kingbird.
At Hasty Campground (Bent County) highlights were Lazuli Bunting, Indigo Bunting, Ovenbird, Tennessee Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat. Melody Tempel Grove (Bent) had Common Yellowthroat, Wilson's Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Ovenbird, Red-headed Woodpecker. At Lamar Community College Woods (Prowers County) on Friday evening a beautiful Hooded Warbler made a brief but prominent eye-level appearance, and near the sign at the north end was a Field Sparrow. Back in there early Sunday was light rain, mist and cool, from 6 a.m. to 9 really slow and quiet, Northern Cardinal, Mississippi Kites, and three thousand mourning Doves. Then it cleared up and got a bit more active, a Black & White Warbler (female I think), Warbling and Red-eyed Vireo, still pretty slow. As I was leaving, standing between the woods and parking area with trees on both sides, a large flock of about 20 Yellow-rumped Warblers came through and with them were a Chestnut-sided Warbler, a Mourning Warbler, and a stunner Northern Parula. Warblers 30 feet up hopping around between the edge of the woods and trees in the grassy area, acting like they were famished, it seemed more overwhelming due to the high count of YRWA, but it was exciting and dizzying to pick out these three fast-moving special warblers...two minutes like that has never quite happened before for me. On the south side of Thurston Reservoir (Prowers) I heard a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, just southeast of there photographed a single Sandhill Crane, strolling along in a field of corn stubble? At Neenoshe Reservoir (Kiowa County) I saw Snowy Plovers, a Common Tern sitting right next to a Bonaparte's Gull, and a flying Forster's Tern. At the Kiowa County side of Adobe Creek Reservoir, numerous Yellow Warblers and a Wilson's Warbler were in the Tamarisk, assumedly just passing through. At the Bent County side I drove all the way around to the end of the public road and took the two-track down to the water. While scoping sandpipers I heard a Tern hit the water and come up, in my binoculars I strongly thought it may have had a yellow bill, but it went quickly up and away, not able to identify. That will bring me back. All in all I saw only a moderate amount of shorebirds on all of the area reservoirs, eleven expected species, there was a lot of lonesome shoreline. Some nice warblers in the above-mentioned places but it took three dawn-to-dark days to find them. More Burrowing Owls than I've ever seen along the routes, and more brilliant Bullock's Orioles than I thought existed. And really, the highlight of the weekend was not so much birds, but rather the amazing Carrizo Canyon which I hiked in both directions from the parking area till I was ready to drop. A very wild and beautiful place. Dan Stringer Larkspur, 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/85349bf2-4e7f-44ef-9c31-d6b290d68d57%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
