Yesterday evening I met a friend at the Valmont Teller/White Rocks parking lot and we headed south in the early evening heat and sun. There were three meadowlarks foraging in the mowed field next to the two tan barns. We watched for quite a while and thought one of them looked eastern, but none vocalized other than a western call or two and we weren't sure. After a while the wind picked up, the sun dipped behind clouds, and the temp cooled a bit. Walking back east along the ditch, we heard the eastern meadowlark song (over the wind and water noise) in the mowed field north of the ditch, and found the bird on the ground. Then it gave one of the diagnostic buzzy calls, It flew west in the same field and kept singing consistently from around 7:45-8:15 PM.
Dickcissels were vocalizing everywhere the whole time. We only heard one bobolink, briefly, in the field north of the tan barns - I usually see and hear multiple bobolinks in the morning in this area. Thanks for the posts about this, it reminded me to revisit one of my favorite local patches! Bev Baker Louisville On Tuesday, June 30, 2020 at 1:40:11 PM UTC-6, Bill Schmoker wrote: > > Hey folks- meant to send yesterday but somehow didn't get this onto the > interwebs. sorry for the day-late post! > > Anyway, I set out to get in a walk and birding yesterday morning before > the heat set in, heading over to the E. Boulder Trail from the Teller Lakes > Trailhead off Valmont Rd. Once there I fell in with Wolf Repass to double > our detection capabilities. > > The place felt more like some prairie reserve in the Midwest than a Front > Range locality- Dickcissels were constantly audible anywhere in the > extensive unmown hay fields along with smatterings of Bobolinks and a > furtive Orchard Oriole along the ditch. > > The long-staying Eastern Meadowlark (eBird records going back to 11 June) > was near the "two tan barns" mentioned by Christine Alexander in her eBird > list from 28 June. This is along the section of trail running N-S, not > along the ditch and waterfall area where many other sightings have been. > The bird was foraging in the newly-mown field just west of the two barns, > which is the first private property encountered east of the trail once it > turns south after leaving the ditch section (or the last private property > along this stretch if you start from the Arapahoe Rd. trailhead.) > > So, to add to the excellent & extensive recent discussions of this bird: > 1) I also heard a singing Eastern Meadowlark, but that detection was a > fair way west of the trail by the two tan barns, near the small prairie dog > town in that direction. It only sang a few times and I didn't record it, > but it was distinctive as others have mentioned and I'm confident in that > ID. > 2) The bird we saw well in the mowed field west of the tan barns was > calling- we never had it sing while it was in view. Hugh Kingery noted the > diagnostic value of meadowlark calls and this bird had a nice buzzy Eastern > call. I was able to record this (and a nearby calling Western for > contrast.) > 3) The bird we saw was carrying food! Very interesting for the > possibilities of nesting there and even better, with who? > 4) So crazy thinking now- maybe the bird we saw was a female and the > singing bird I heard about 100 yards west was a paired male?? Not > asserting that this is the case but not ruling it out either. I didn't > hear the two vocalizations at the same time so another possibility is that > the bird sang farther away and then flew in (though we didn't see this) to > forage while calling. > > Anyway, the call notes & photos of the bird carrying food can be > heard/seen here: https://ebird.org/checklist/S70955701 > > Oh, and nice for Boulder County was a Burrowing Owl perching on the power > lines between HWY 52 & Lookout Road along 95th. I saw one driving down and > again driving home along the same stretch of wire- there's a small prairie > dog town in the field to the West there. If stopping to search or view be > careful along this busy road. I didn't stop to check for more out in the > town, but it was a treat to see the Howdy Owl surveying its domain. > > Enjoy- Bill Schmoker, Longmont > > -- > /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ > Bill Schmoker > bill.s...@gmail.com <javascript:> > http://schmoker.org > http://www.polartrec.com/expeditions/us-arctic-geotraces > <720/201-5749> > \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ > > -- 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/6c87d2b6-9325-472d-981f-66fb616e9ef3o%40googlegroups.com.
