Monday 7 September 2015

[cobirds] Labor Day weekend northeast Colorado

I birded partial to full days Saturday, Sunday, and Monday (September 5-7) in generally familiar locations in northeast Colorado.  Wilson's Warblers and Cassin's Vireos were the featured birds during the holiday weekend and were seemingly everywhere.  Western Tanagers have also recently become widespread in the region.

The most interesting observation of the three days was this morning at seldom-birded Sandy Bluffs State Trust Land in Yuma County.  There I found a group of 5 pewees, 3 of which were vocalizing as EASTERN WOOD PEWEES in various fashion.  They seemed to be a tight group.  When one would fly to another tree, the other 4 would follow, and they often perched next to each other.  Some appeared to be juveniles. Were they all eastern?

Other birds of note at this location were a Tennessee Warbler, a Red-eyed Vireo, a couple of Cassin's Vireos, and two Great Crested Flycatchers.

Elsewhere, locations that were quite birdy were the Prewitt Reservoir inlet canal area (Washington County) and Flagler Reservoir SWA (Kit Carson County).  Prewitt produced mostly expected species but in good numbers.  At Flagler, Chris Rurik and I found a some goodies among the many birds, including Ash-throated Flycatcher, Nashville Warbler, 11 Cassin's Vireos, 1 Plumbeous Vireo, 3 Cassin's Kingbirds, and 10 empids (Willow, Hammond's, Dusky, Least, and Cordilleran/Pacific-slope).

Locations that were NOT birdy included Holyoke (town park, fishin' hole, and cemetery) and Wray (Stalker Lake and fish hatchery).  These locations were as lacking in birds as I have ever seen, but they will still be worth a check soon when more "eastern" birds arrive in the state.

In the heat of Saturday afternoon, birds were hard to find at Ovid woods (Sedgwick County), but one BLUE-HEADED VIREO did make an appearance.

Also on Saturday, I re-found the juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk at North Sterling Reservoir (Logan County), in the previous reported location (footbridge over dry inlet canal).  Congrats to Bill Kaempfer's group for such a great find!

David Dowell
Longmont, CO

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