Last night, Saturday, July 13th, Topiltzin Martinez and Andrew Floyd and I explored the surprisingly extensive cattail marshes at the west end of Boulder Reservoir, Boulder County.
The fireflies were amazing, spanning an area of many acres. I was impressed by the fireflies last week near White Rocks, Boulder County, but the show at the west edge of Boulder Rez is vastly superior. The mosquitos are horrible, so bring insect repellant.
Our highlight was a briefly seen but close-up Long-eared Owl powering across the far western edge of the cattails; we heard it, too, giving a few dull, clipped hooting notes. For what it's worth, Kei and I saw a Long-eared Owl less than a mile west of here in July many summers ago. I wonder if the species has been here in summer all along.
We heard and saw two Common Nighthawks, and we saw two silent nighthawks. For rails, we heard only two Soras. No Virginias, which surprised me. Also, no Black Rails and no wood-rails.
The winnowing Wilson's Snipes were wonderful, and we heard a couple of night-singing Vesper Sparrows. Also the usual coyotes and Woodhouse's toads.
I thought we were going to make the police blotter again (as I have twice now in Prowers County) when a Good Samaritan checked on the three of us as we walked down the Boulder Rez perimeter Road, then swung back for a second look, stopped to asked what we were doing, and seemed exceedingly skeptical of our report that we were listening to a snipe.
Ted Floyd
tedfloyd57@hotmail.com
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
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