Nine of us from Denver Audubon spent the weekend at the Karval MountainPlover festival. Centeredon Mountain Plovers, the festival involves more than the birds and theirnatural history. The community works together to provide an instructiveand friendly weekend that extends beyond birds to how Karval ranchers foster,protect, and harbor this eclectic species. Landowners who have adopted land use practices that fosterplovers served as festival organizers and tour guides. The ranchers starred,the plovers came in second. Of course, it still included typical festival tour protocol –aiming for a “big list.” Karval has limited potential for a big bird list, due tolimited habitats (town, prairie, dryland ag, riparian, two ponds); we listed about 65 species. Learningabout the community trumped listing on this memorable weekend. Bird highlights: Plovers, of course – several each day including some calling inflight displays over their territories. DOW has a team of researchers in Karvalstudying chick survival – by the end of April they had found 15 nests. We saw lots of individual plovers – which impliesthat an incubating mate. A pair that we watched either hadn’t started layingeggs or had started their second contemporary nesting. (Mountain Plovers laytwo sets of eggs: the male incubates the first set, the female the second, orvice versa.) Peregrine Falcon – it soared overhead, stooped on a Horned Lark,then disappeared. Wilson'sPhalaropes – several including a female 10 feet away; she had a slaty-blue backoverlaid with a V of chestnut feathers, and a few blue feathers scalloped withchestnut on the tips. I've never seen a phalarope so close and so lovely. AmericanPipit – one plying the shore of Karval SWA lake, next to the phalarope, with an extraordinaryrobin-orange breast and phalarope-gray-blue back, different from any I’ve seen,and different from all the field guides illustrations.
Swainson’sHawks – one or two in almost every stand of trees. (One flock of 26, apparentlyimmatures going somewhere.) The bustook us to several abandoned farmsteads, two riparian stream-bottoms (all onprivate land) which hosted a variety of migrants including: several flocks of PineSiskins, one mountain-race Hairy Woodpecker, Rock Wrens, Hermit thrushes, Yellow-rumpedWarblers, a couple of Virginia’s, an Orange-crowned, 5 sparrow species, and afew flocks of Lark Buntings, precursors to the rolling flocks of migrants thatcover the prairie in June. [The prairie here looks very very dry. That mayaffect breeding, although one DOW researcher has already found a Horned Larknest with eggs and a fledgling.] The schoolbus, our transportation, followed cattle trails across the prairie to depositus near a pothole with ducks, phalaropes, Willets, snipe, and swallows. In all, 7 shorebirdspecies and several flocks of White-faced Ibis. Anotherprairie jaunt drove us to a dry playa lake – where 20 years ago one of theranchers water-skied. Seth Gallagher of RMBO explained the fascinating biology of the playa. Peoplehighlights: Thewhole community of Karval produces this unique experience. It centers onMountain Plovers, but not simply to see them. Two ranchers, Jeff Thornton &Russell Davis, talked in detail about their conversion to protecting ploverhabitat, and why they work to persuade their neighbors to commit to similarmeasures. They don’t want it addedto the Endangered Species list. Their grazing practices fit plover biology. They even have adjusted to (or resignedthemselves to) prairie dog towns, helping the resultant Burrowing Owls. We saw prairieowls several times over the 2 ½ days although they seemed not to have settleddown yet to serious breeding. A different community group provided each meal – from theLions club to the Sophomore class. The warm atmosphere made all of us feel welcome.Try it next year! Hugh & Urling Kingery -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
