I got out today for a loop out into the eastern plains, and had a good day although no sightings of major note. Met up with Glenn Walbek at Last Chance, where he turned up a Red-naped Sapsucker and a Hermit Thrush. Stops at Jackson, 59 Pond, Loloff, Latham and Beebe turned up mostly the usual suspects. There were about fifty avocets at Loloff, with fair numbers of stilts there and at 59.
The main reason for the post is to give birders a heads up about a landowner at Latham who has apparently decided that he has a major proprietary interest in the county road. I pulled up to the marsh (the eastern part on the south side of the road, which on occasion hosts shorebirds of interest, but currently has mostly a bunch of dabblers. Anyway, I looked in my rear view and what do I see but some yahoo on an ATV, parked directly behind my car and busily scribbling in a notebook. I assume that I was supposed to conclude that he was taking my license number, make of car, count of bug splatters, or whatever, to what purpose I can't say. I guess I was supposed to be intimidated by this. After giving him sufficient time to take copious notes (more than I took in my entire undergrad career, as best I could tell), I drove town to the western end of the marsh to look for rails (one Virginia heard, for what that's worth). Deciding that valor was the better part of discretion, and working myself into a bit of a mood, I returned to the east marsh just to see if I could pish him out. Sure enough, I had no more than parked than here he came. This time I rolled down my window so he could voice any objections to my presence on a pubic road. The conversion went something like this: "Whatcha doin'?" "Birdwatching" "I don't see any birds." "Sometimes they're here, sometimes not, but you have a great birdwatching area here." "I know. It's horrible. I think people from town wouldn't like it if people stopped in front of their property." Whereupon he spun off with as much flourish as you can manage on a glorified golf cart. So, be advised that the natives are restless- one in particular. This guy seems to be spoiling for a fight, so keep your eyes open, especially if you don't like to have your license number written down. He lives in the blue-gray house on the north side of the road. I have trouble conceiving of how a few birders stopping along the road interferes with his lifestyle, but he obviously doesn't see it that way. And here I thought Weld County was The Land Of Personal Freedoms. Go figure. Norm Norm Lewis Lakewood, 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/8D1299B1F3BA57D-804-314B9%40webmail-vm003.sysops.aol.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
