Hi Everyone-
I had a fun time down in Huerfano and Las Animas Counties this weekend 6/8-9. With Glenn Walbek’s excellent directions, it didn’t take long to find a singing male Hepatic Tanager on Rouse Road. A singing Philadelphia Vireo in the creek about a quarter mile west of the Hepatic Tanager was quite the surprise, and it was nice that David Dowell and Norm Lewis were also able to see it. David and I birded along CR 313 to the Las Animas County line, and I continued south into Mauricio Canyon over to Trinidad. I made a brief stop at Trinidad Lake (not much water there, full of boats), then through the Picketwire Valley and over to La Veta along CO-12. In La Veta, in those fabulous willows along Francisco Street, I saw an Evening Grosbeak and a Red-naped Sapsucker. This morning, I drove south out of La Junta along CO-109 to Las Animas County road 76.8. The stretch of road after the steep downhill pitch seems to be a pretty reliable spot for Gray Vireo, and it didn’t take long to find one. From here, I meandered back home, with my last stop at Last Chance. The only migrant was a Western Tanager, but there was a younger-than-two-years male Orchard Oriole singing, and a Great Horned Owl in the patch at the NW corner looked remarkably pale, like the ones I sometimes see up toward Canada. I checked for a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher along US-36, but didn’t see one.
CR 313 was very good for butterflies, including an Orange-headed Roadside-Skipper and an Edwards’s Fritillary. This morning, I saw a tarantula sauntering across CO-109. Luckily, cross-traffic was nil.
Mark Miller
Longmont, CO
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