Sorry about the lateness of the report.....I decided to take a run out to Last Chance yesterday. It was very birdy, although only a few "notables" were around. Upon arrival the first bird was a nice bright Macgillivray's warbler, joined by a yellow-rump, a yellow and a yellowthroat. Sounds like something from a Donovan tune....anyway, the mystique of Last Chance was fully in play. For such a small place, it is remarkable how birds appear and disappear there. I had a rose-breasted grosbeak perched a few yards away in full view for a couple of minutes. I turned to check some movement in the top of a tree. When I returned to the grosbeak location a few seconds later, that bird was gone and had been replaced by on orchard oriole. I never saw the grosbeak again in another hour of looking. Meanwhile, the treetop distraction proved to be the Mac warbler (I don't know that I have ever seen one occupying a spot usually reserved for the treetop guys like blackburnian- an no, I didn't see a blackburnian...), who had been joined by a second Mac, and they were busily chasing one another through the branches. There were also several Swainson's thrushes, a couple of American goldfinches, too many western kingbirds to count, and most of the other usual suspects. It was also great to see the results of the efforts of Joe and Landscape Crew (not a half bad name for a band, come to think of it) as they help refurbish the area after the fire. Having now joined the ranks of the retired, I hope to be able to help with those types of efforts in the future.
From Last Chance I decided to pop up to Prewitt. The area around and east of the outlet canal was extremely birdy but lacking in much of anything of note. The most noticeable thing was actually a "miss"; other than scads of kingbirds, I didn't see a single flycatcher- not even a pewee. One surprise "get" was a large flock of birds that I noticed approaching across one of the fields. I put my bins on them, expecting starlings. Instead I got waxwings- around seventy-five of them, as a guesstimate. Working my way back toward the parking lot, I picked up another couple dozen, mostly hanging out in the Russian olives, for a total of at least a hundred. There were lots of red-headed woodpeckers around too, jug to brighten things up a bit.
I finished up the day at Brush State Wildlife Area, also birdy but not much in the way of migrants. the best birds there were a couple of bobwhite.
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+unsubscribe@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/8D02AA49628ECE3-12FC-34A2F%40webmail-va002.sysops.aol.com?hl=en-US.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
No comments:
Post a Comment