[cobirds] Report of trip to Chico Basin Saturday.

Hi Cobirders. Sorry for late report . Got home late yesterday and
was at Church all morning. My helper has been learning birds for a
couple years. Tina drove my car
down and back and was thrilled to see birds at Chico Basin.
We got to the ranch about 10:30AM Not a lot of land bird activity,
We did see a Curved-billed Trasher new for Tina . Also checked
Headquarters Pond with the
telescope. There were about 40 Ruddy Ducks most sleeping (probably
had been migrating) and at least 20 Redhead Ducks and a few others .
Then I talked to one of the their ranchers who told me how to get to
Upper Twin Lake where the Nelson's Sparrow had been hanging out. I
did hear from
Bill Maynard Friday evening he had searched for it for an hour and
not found it. He thought it had left just ahead of the cold front.

As we were still in the yard at the office a large brown bird landed
on the fence. I was puzzled and Tina said it sounded like a Grackle
so I checked and indeed it
was a female Great-tailed Grackle . I never had seen one all by its
self!

So we did get to the Upper Twin Pond. There were two birders there
with telescopes. They spent a lot of time looking in the reeds and
we had parked facing them.
There were 6 White-crowned Sparrows (one was an immature) and I saw a
small light colored wren fly toward the reeds and dropped straight
down in them near the
water. It did not reappear.

I talked to the birders and they did not find the Nelson's Sparrow.
We continued to look while we ate lunch but no luck. Hope it comes
back next year.

On the ranch road out we saw a Western Meadowlark and a Northern
Shrike ( Three had been seen at Bear Creek Lake Park by Mike and
another also
was reported Saturday!) So they are back.

Birding at Chico Basin is always great fun. It was a nice day too!.

Bob Spencer N.E. of Golden


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