August 23
Among birds noted while birding along Dutch Creek at the Dakota formation hogback in Ken Caryl Ranch (JeffCo) were an Eastern Phoebe (presumed migrant, does not nest there), 2 Sage Thrashers and a MacGillivray's Warbler. An open space area within the Ken Caryl Valley development had a Blue Grosbeak and 9+ Lazuli Buntings in one flock, with a Willow Flycatcher nearby.
August 25
I visited Chatfield. I first birded in the Plum Creek area (Douglas), beginning along the road to the Plum Creek Nature Area, then walking upstream from the end of the road to near Titan Blvd, then looping back along the Highline Canal. A few Lark Buntings were along the road to the nature area, with others in grassland to the south. A Northern Mockingbird was along Highline Canal. Ten Sage Thrashers were noted in the Plum Creek region, scattered here and there. Red-breasted Nuthatches were common. I heard 19 in the Plum Creek region; 2 were in a stand of small planted pines, but 17 were in the cottonwood gallery riparian.
Gray Catbirds and other fruit-eaters were common in a few spots where ripe chokecherries were attracting many birds, but numerous other patches looked the same to me but did not have a swarm of birds, and thickets with ripe wild plums were similarly quiet. One patch of chokecherry had the right stuff and had concentrated over 22 catbirds (!!), with robins, tanagers, flickers, waxwings and House Finches joining. Other birds in the Plum Creek area were 2 Red-eyed Vireos, 1 Least Flycatcher, and 2 Willow Flycatchers. A Hairy Woodpecker foraging on a mullein flower stalk in wide open weedy grassland was an out-of-habitat oddity.
It was late morning when I made it to the west (JeffCo) side of the South Platte upstream of Kingfisher, and things were generally quiet. But I had 3 more Red-breasted Nuthatches, and 2 Yellow-breasted Chats were still singing.
Aug 26
This morning I hiked up the Massey Draw Trail in the Ken Caryl Ranch Foothills Open Space (JeffCo). Red-breasted Nuthatches were numerous there, too, but in the normal Douglas-fir forest mostly. An Ovenbird was in the upper Massey watershed; a lingering bird or a migrant? I spotted 2 Townsend's Warblers with different mixed flocks. Four 4 Type 4 Red Crossbills were noted. I had my first Clay-colored sparrow of the season. Also noted were 3 Wilson's Warblers, 4 MacGillivray's Warblers, 1 Hammond's Flycatcher, 1 Sage Thrasher, and 1 Golden Eagle. I enjoyed seeing a Rock Wren and Canyon Wren perched together on the same rock. Over the years I've seen the two species in the same immediate area a number of times, but never standing just 2 feet apart.
David Suddjian
Littleton, CO
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