RE: [cobirds] Re: "Small gull with M pattern"

[John Vanderpoel]

I agree with Tony.  Juvenile Sabine’s certainly show a strong pattern in 
flight.  Striking white, brown, and black.  Much better description than an “M” 
pattern.

 

John Vanderpoel

 

From: cobirds@googlegroups.com [mailto:cobirds@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of 
willc...@gmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2020 8:17 PM
To: Colorado Birds
Subject: [cobirds] Re: "Small gull with M pattern"

 

Hi All,

 

I think the description of a dark M on the back for a juvenile Sabine's gull 
makes perfect sense, and is both helpful and descriptive for newer birders. It 
is a common term when used in relation to Sabine's Gulls in juvenile plumage, 
and I see no need for a change of the lexicon.

 

thanks,

 

Will

On Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 3:51:04 PM UTC-6 codipper wrote:

All: 

 

The number of species of "small gulls with an M pattern" that are possible in 
Colorado is five: Ross's, Little, Bonaparte's, and Black-headed gulls and 
Black-legged Kittiwake. The "M pattern" refers to the "M" described by the dark 
primaries and the stripe of dark crossing the otherwise pale coverts to the 
wrist from the base of the wing.

 

Sabine's Gull does NOT have an "M pattern."

 

Sincerely,

 

Tony Leukering

currently Fairborn, OH

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[cobirds] tell it to me straight.... finding a Lapland Longspur

['ronbco' via Colorado Birds]

I'm a reasonably passionate birder, but not very patient.
I saw an ebird post for a Lapland Longspur nearby my home and since it 
would be a lifer I went to look; no success, but again, I am not patient.

Looking at ebird stats for the area (Loveland/Longmont) it seems that 
sitings are not common. My general impression is that they are seen in 
onsey/twosey out in the middle of fields, and you need to use a scope and 
be patient.

The siting I was acting on yesterday had one in a flock of horned larks. 
When I arrived at the location, on queue, a flock of something swirled 
around, too far for me to id. I watched the area for about 15 min and saw 
very active flocks of probably horned larks and certainly meadowlarks. They 
would usually settle in the midst of grass that was too high to site them 
in.

So my questions are:
- is the above experience typical?
- are they and their friends so skittish that you will never get within 100 
yds?
- if I spent say a few hours on a sunny winter day walking a field slowly 
might I get a good look
- are the id marks distinctive enough that I will likely feel confident?
- do they hang with meadow larks, or just horned?

Ron Bolton
Berthoud

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Re: [cobirds] tell it to me straight.... finding a Lapland Longspur

[Diana Beatty]

Just my personal experience -a good time to look for Lapland Longspurs is
when the ground is covered in snow but the dirt roads aren't - when that
happens, I tend to find them along the roads/fencelines.  If the fields are
open, it seems they are more likely to be off in some field where they
would be harder to spot.

Diana Beatty
El Paso County

On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 8:38 AM 'ronbco' via Colorado Birds <
cobirds@googlegroups.com> wrote:

> I'm a reasonably passionate birder, but not very patient.
> I saw an ebird post for a Lapland Longspur nearby my home and since it
> would be a lifer I went to look; no success, but again, I am not patient.
>
> Looking at ebird stats for the area (Loveland/Longmont) it seems that
> sitings are not common. My general impression is that they are seen in
> onsey/twosey out in the middle of fields, and you need to use a scope and
> be patient.
>
> The siting I was acting on yesterday had one in a flock of horned larks.
> When I arrived at the location, on queue, a flock of something swirled
> around, too far for me to id. I watched the area for about 15 min and saw
> very active flocks of probably horned larks and certainly meadowlarks. They
> would usually settle in the midst of grass that was too high to site them
> in.
>
> So my questions are:
> - is the above experience typical?
> - are they and their friends so skittish that you will never get within
> 100 yds?
> - if I spent say a few hours on a sunny winter day walking a field slowly
> might I get a good look
> - are the id marks distinctive enough that I will likely feel confident?
> - do they hang with meadow larks, or just horned?
>
> Ron Bolton
> Berthoud
>
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> 
> .
>


-- 

**

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the
old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

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[cobirds] tell it to me straight.... finding a Lapland Longspur

[Susan Rosine]

Haha, I'm not always patient either, so I get it. 
Honest answer, these little guys can be so difficult! I usually see them with 
Horned Larks. If you go up to the Pawnee Grasslands you can find them NOT with 
larks, and in larger numbers.
I usually find them along the sides of dirt roads, either on the ground or on a 
fence.
They are a tough bird, so I wish you luckand patience!
Susan Rosine
Brighton, Adams County

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[cobirds] Cedar Waxwings, Louisville

[Paula Hansley]

I just had a small (<12) flock of Cedar Waxwings in my Washington Hawthorne 
tree, which is full of ripe berries!


Paula Hansley 
Boulder County

Sent from my iPhone

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Re: [cobirds] Cedar Waxwings, Louisville

[Patrick O'Driscoll]

I, too, watched a similar-sized flock of Cedar Waxwings in a neighbor's
mature juniper tree Tuesday here in east-central Denver, just off East
Colfax Avenue. They were scarfing juniper berries in a frenzy along with a
flock of at least 25 American Robins.

Patrick O'Driscoll
Denver



On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 11:42 AM Paula Hansley 
wrote:

> I just had a small (<12) flock of Cedar Waxwings in my Washington
> Hawthorne tree, which is full of ripe berries!
>
>
> Paula Hansley
> Boulder County
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
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> "Colorado Birds" group.
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> .
>

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[cobirds] Migration Weather Forecast... when is the next chance?

[Bryan Guarente]

COBirders,
I had a chance to look at the weather a little this morning to make a
migration weather forecast.  I also noticed that the website that I use,
and hopefully you are using more now, has been updated with a new user
interface.  This is great news for mobile device users as it is much more
intuitive and useful on mobile now.  For desktop users, this has given some
more clarity to the buttons and makes the loading faster.  Check it out:
earth.nullshool.net

The key thing you need to still do is change the wind altitude to 850hPa
(not ideal for CO as we would want higher, but the best we can do on this
site).  To do so, you still click on the "earth" button in the bottom left
corner and scroll through the menus to find the 850hPa button.

To navigate through time on this page, you can use the "<<   <   >   >>"
section of the menu.  Those correspond to -1 day, -3 hours, +3 hours,
and +1 day.  You'll need that for my challenge.

Since the passerine migrants are mostly done aside from the northern
migrant sparrows, we have been in a slow trickle with what I am guessing is
mostly altitudinal migrants, but there have also been some surprises
recently that may be wanderers from around the area that we hadn't detected
yet (Little Gull and Scoters were the surprises to me).  OR these birds
could have migrated in less-than-ideal conditions based on the weather.  OR
I am/we are looking at computer models which are inherently slightly flawed
due to our inability to fully model the atmospheric intricacies.  OR I
could be missing part of the big picture of migration and weather patterns.

*And now for the challenge for those that have read this far...*

   - *Using earth.nullschool.net , when do you
   think we will see our next more obvious push of migrants in the Front Range
   of CO?  *
   - *For bonus points, where along the Front Range will they see the best
   concentrations of birds according to the forecasted winds?*
   - *For double bonus points, what do you think those migrants could be?*

Email me directly with answers, or if you are feeling bold, reply to this
thread on COBirds so we can all learn from your answers, our mistakes, and
the ensuing conversations.

Thanks to those of you who wish to play along, and thanks to those of you
who keep egging me on happily.  I appreciate all the kind words you are
throwing my way when I send these emails out.  It makes it worth it to just
hear from each of you about your experiences and enjoyment of birding.

Best in birding,
Bryan

Bryan Guarente
Meteorologist/Instructional Designer
UCAR/The COMET Program
Boulder, CO

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Re: [cobirds] tell it to me straight.... finding a Lapland Longspur

[Bryan Guarente]

Ron,
For any of the longspurs in winter, it is best to learn their calls and
rattle calls (not their songs).  When a flock of Horned Larks takes to the
air, they love to vocalize.  Same is true of the Longspurs.  The rattle
calls of Longspurs are quite distinctive from Horned Larks and that is how
I normally get my Longspurs in winter.

*Lapland Longspurs from Colorado:*
>From Nathan Pieplow:

   - https://www.xeno-canto.org/17814  
   - https://www.xeno-canto.org/17815
   - https://www.xeno-canto.org/17816

>From Sue Riffe:

   - https://www.xeno-canto.org/461823
   - https://www.xeno-canto.org/450539

*It is worthwhile then to know what Horned Lark calls sound like too:*
>From Sue Riffe:

   - https://www.xeno-canto.org/313073 (Ignore the Western Meadowlark Call)

>From Ted Floyd:

   - https://www.xeno-canto.org/354538 (a nice flock doing what they love
   to do)

To me that is the way to win at the Longspur game, especially in winter
when your teeth are rattling like Longspur calls.

Best of luck,
Bryan

Bryan Guarente
Meteorologist/Instructional Designer
UCAR/The COMET Program
Boulder, CO


On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 11:37 AM Susan Rosine  wrote:

> Haha, I'm not always patient either, so I get it.
> Honest answer, these little guys can be so difficult! I usually see them
> with Horned Larks. If you go up to the Pawnee Grasslands you can find them
> NOT with larks, and in larger numbers.
> I usually find them along the sides of dirt roads, either on the ground or
> on a fence.
> They are a tough bird, so I wish you luckand patience!
> Susan Rosine
> Brighton, Adams County
>
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> .
>

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Re: [cobirds] Cedar Waxwings, Louisville

[Charlie Chase]

My little flock of 10ish flew over the Highlands neighborhood just west of
downtown around 7 this morning.  Great view from the hottub, coffee in hand.
Charlie Chase
Denver




On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 11:42 AM Paula Hansley 
wrote:

> I just had a small (<12) flock of Cedar Waxwings in my Washington
> Hawthorne tree, which is full of ripe berries!
>
>
> Paula Hansley
> Boulder County
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Colorado Birds" group.
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> email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
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> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/9775E331-8E63-4F95-BD25-1F127859D18D%40gmail.com
> .
>

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[cobirds] Do yourself a favor! Browse the HELP section of eBird!

[Joe Roller]

It’s worth it!
Friendly tip from 
Joe Roller 

Sent from my iPhone

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[cobirds] Pine Warbler at Pueblo Co. 10/29

[Brandon]

A Pine Warbler with yellow on the throat and no tail was feeding in pine
needles in tall pine trees this morning in at Pueblo City Park, Pueblo
County.  It was seen west of Lake Joy, the pond in the middle if the park.
Photos were taken.  A few Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers are also being seen in
Pueblo City Park, they could be anywhere, today two were seen west of Lake
Joy.  There are good numbers of nuthatches, chickadees, creepers, and other
birds to look through.  I believe this is the first Pine Warbler in Pueblo
County since 2015.

Brandon K. Percival
Pueblo West, CO

Sent from my Android

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