Just a note that you, Ted, reported fireflies on June 9-10, 2017, according to the search function on this august list. So they are early but have been early before!
- Sandra Laursen On Saturday, June 6, 2020 at 4:27:12 PM UTC-6, Ted Floyd wrote: > > Hey, folks. > > Andrew Floyd and I, having nothing better to do yesterday evening, > Fri.-Sat., June 5-6, decided to go out in search of things that go bump, > hoot, *huhuhuhuhuhuhu*, and *p't'tip-pzzzzzzzzz* in the night. > > We started out up Flagstaff Road, just west of the Boulder city limits, > more congested--truly, *congested*--than I'd ever seen it. But we managed > to find a roadside spot far from, or at least not in the immediate vicinity > of, the madding crowd. The last of the *hermit thrushes* were settling > down as we ourselves were getting settled in, and the first of the > *flammulated > owls* avowed at 8:54pm. The flamms (*n*=2) never got particularly close, > and neither did a *common poorwill* (*n*=1) down in a ravine below, but > the *northern saw-whet owls* (*n*=4) were fantastic. We found ourselves > in the midst of a foursome of saw-whets, two of them hooting wildly, a > third uttering that eerie and rarely heard whetting-of-the-saw sound, and a > fourth giving a shrill whistle that sounds like a cross between a kitten > and a wraith. Here's one of them: > > https://www.xeno-canto.org/565795 > > A comment: Owls and nightjars are eminently findable at this time of the > year up Flagstaff Road, and you absolutely do not need playback to hear > them. They're just singing spontaneously. You don't even have to leave the > roadside pull-offs to hear them. And the idea of using lights for enjoying > owls is equivalent to blasting your Metallica CD whilst listening to the > "Sanctus" from the Berlioz *Requiem*. Lights are good in certain > instances, and so, I suppose, is Metallica, but it is beyond senseless to > use lights whilst delighting in the transcendent magic of a chorus of owls. > > We saw a bat up there, by the way, during twilight, and I suspect it was a > hoary bat, *Aeorestes cinereus*. A good way to confirm that a whitish bat > is that species is to point your recorder (cellphone fine) in the direction > of the bat; the hoary bat is anomalously low-pitched, and extremely loud, > and even though we humans can't hear the species, our recorders can, and > you can totally see the spectrogram if you jack the y-axis up into the 20 > kHz band; you should be able to see their freakishly powerful, but > inaudible, chirps coming in just under 22 kHz, with their characteristic > steep up-sweeps. > > On the drive down, we saw a red fox, *V. vulpes*, trotting right along > Flagstaff Road. We also saw massive throngs of disappointed strawberry moon > seekers, for it was entirely overcast there, and a bit breezy. And > remarkably warm. At the base of the canyon, Andrew heard a *yellow-breasted > chat,* and I heard road noise. > > Alright, next it was over to the marshes at the west end of Boulder > Reservoir. Practically birdless there, with only a few *Canada geese* in > the distance, but the anuran concert was splendid; three or four species, > and the Woodhouse toads, *Anaxyrus woodhousii*, were just going OFF. The > frogs and toads were awesome, but the real show-stoppers were the > fireflies, Lampyridae spp., like the Milky Way come down to Earth, in the > cattails right along the road. A motorist stopped to inquire what we were > doing, and we explained that you have to turn your headlights *off* to > see the fireflies, and the driver said, "Well, that's the dumbest thing, > how can you see anything in the dark?" and drove away. Hooooookay. Anyhow, > the fireflies just west of Boulder Rez are glorious, they're there for > anybody to see, and, yes, I assure you, you need to turn off your lights to > see them. Again: Metallica...Berlioz... > > I was surprised that the firefly show was so good on the early date of > June 5. Usually, in my experience, it's a late-June-into-early-July thing > here in Boulder County. I wonder if that means they're just early this > year, or, if I might entertain the happy thought, that they're going to be > REALLY good in a few weeks. > > Next stop: Cottonwood Marsh, where it was still a bit breezy, still > overcast, and still warm. We hadn't even gotten out of the car when Andrew > announced, "Listen, I can hear a *chup-chup-CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'-kizzzzz* > out there!" Sure enough: > > https://www.xeno-canto.org/565791 > > It's a *western marsh wren* (Woodhouse toad also audible in that cut), > but I shall henceforth refer to it as a > *chup-chup-CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'CH'-kizzzzz*. Hey, it's a lot more > descriptive, and arguably more evocative, than X Æ A-12. Anyhow, the > bird sang constantly the whole time we were there, and we can tell it's > from the western population by the elements of any particular song and, > especially, by the variation *among* the different songs (*n*=15 in that > cut). Don Kroodsma and others think the marsh wren might comprise two > species, with both likely occurring in Colorado. So, once you've got the > crossbills all figured out (good luck with that), see what you can do with > your marsh wrens. There were bats here, too, big brown ones, and I wonder > if they were indeed big brown bats, *Eptesicus fuscus*. I don't know. > Also a *killdeer* flying over. That I do know. > > After Cottonwood Marsh, we went to an area of Gun Barrel Hill where I have > succeeded in the past in hearing a very special bird while still standing > by the car. It required Andrew's supersonic ears, but we got it: > > https://www.xeno-canto.org/565789 > > That is a *grasshopper sparrow* (*p't'tip-pzzzzzzzzz*), in my mind one of > the most enchanting of all night-singing bird species. Andrew's ears were > indisputably useful, but I think we got an assist from the full moon, too. > It finally came out, if only for a few minutes, and I suspect the moonlight > induced the sparrows, plural, to amp up their singing. No pix of the > birds--in fact we didn't see any birds at all last night--but here's my > human companion, watching the moon and listening to sparrows: > > [image: AKF night.jpg] > > You might have noticed some crickets in that cut of the grasshopper > sparrow. How could you *not* have noticed them? But if you somehow > overlooked the crickets, here they are in all their glory: > > https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/48673024 > > They're field crickets in the genus *Gryllus*, and pretty likely *G. > veletis*, I think. We heard a couple of insomniac *western meadowlarks* > at this stop, too. > > After the sparrows and crickets and meadowlarks, we popped in on > Sawhill--yeah, for those of you who know the Boulder County lowlands, our > itinerary had, by this point, become altogether haphazard. It was overcast > again, fully and thoroughly and completely overcast, and a winnowing *Wilson > snipe* was going berserk. The snipe's winnowing (*huhuhuhuhuhuhu*) is a > sonation, not a vocalization, made with the bird's *tail*. Who knew! I > don't think the snipe ever got particularly close to the ground, and that > was sort of the point--that disembodied sound, spooky and supremely > soothing, waaaaay up there, utterly indifferent to Andrew and me and the > fishermen and frogs below. (Frogs: North American bullfrogs, *Lithobates > catesbeianus*, and chorus frogs, *Pseudacris* spp.) > > Final stop: Teller Lake No. 5. The only birds we could hear were ducks, or > maybe coots or grebes or fish or a boot, flapping or flopping in the water. > But the bats, little brown jobs, were wondrous, frequently flying so close > that we could practically reach out and touch them. Not sure what species, > but the little brown bat, *Myotis lucifugus*, seemed reasonable. Saw a > raccoon, *Procyon lotor*, here and heard a troupe of coyotes, *Canis > latrans*. > > Well, starting with the first flam just before 9pm and wrapping up with > the snipe just before 2am, we found a grand total of ten (10) bird species > the whole time we were out there, and, as I said earlier, we never actually > laid eyes on *any* birds. But it was an unforgettable night of birding > and nature study, and we celebrated on the way back home to Lafayette with > a bag of baked cheddar jalapeño pretzel Combos®: > > [image: AKF-TF.jpg] > > 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/8a547ccc-43b6-4143-ac50-83202cff8372o%40googlegroups.com.
