Hey, all.
Can you tell by all the acronyms that I am retired Army?
Translation: American Birding Association Bird of the Year (the Evening Grosbeak) was at Turkey Creek Ranch and the United States Air Force Academy today, October 1st.
They are removing the picnic tables from the ranch for winter storage today, so I do not know how much longer we will be able to bird there.
It was cool to see two small groups of the birds today. When we first pulled in to TCR this morning at 7:45am, we saw three Lewis's Woodpeckers before we could even park. Would this be a repeat of our 7 woodpecker day of a few weeks ago? No, but we did see five species including one we did not get last time. Along with the 8 Lewis's, we saw a dozen Northern Flickers, two Downy WPs, a male and female Williamson's SS, and one Yellow-bellied SS.
Robins were in abundance - probably close to 300 on the ranch. There were three jays - Blue, Steller's, and a lot of Western Scrub. We had two dozen Wild Turkeys, half-a-dozen Townsend Solitaires, lots of White-crowned sparrows, a Lincoln's sparrow and both Western Bluebirds and Mountain Bluebirds. Another bird in large numbers was the Dark-eyed Juncos, mostly "pink-sided".
Finishing up a little after 11:00am, we headed for the Kettle lakes at the Academy. There we had the Evening Grosbeaks, Cedar Waxwings, abundant Pygmy Nuthatches, Mountain Chickadees, and a bunch of Yellow-rumped Warblers.
A total of over 40 species for the day.
All in all, fun birding in beautiful fall scenery and weather.
Good birding, everyone!
Mel and Jeanne Goff
Colo Spgs
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