Norma's Grove west of Weld CR57 on Weld CR100 was pretty quiet but did have a Cassin's Kingbird.
At the intersection of Murphy's Pasture Road (GR96) and CR69 is a windmill with a cattle tank full of water. This has always been a bird-attracting area and a great place to study sparrows. In the general area of this intersection today were two Rock Wrens, several Savannah Sparrows, a Grasshopper Sparrow, several Chestnut-collared Longspurs (including lots of young birds that would be tough to get onto and ID without knowing the flight call), two late Lark Buntings, plus Brewer's, Clay-colored, Chipping, Vesper, and Gambel's race White-crowned Sparrows.
Crow Valley Campground, like Norma's Grove, was not crawling with birds but a long visit produced 42 species including Cassin's Kingbird, a late Western Kingbird, a late Townsend's Warbler, two Swainson's Thrushes, two latish Western Tanagers, a couple empids I did not see well enough to positively ID but believe one of them was a Cordilleran. The latter bird was in a juniper in the sw corner and had a very large caterpillar in its beak in very bad lighting. When I jack the exposure on the photos well enough to see anything, it is clear the bird has a big teardrop eyering, yellow underparts, and a long primary projection. No sapsuckers or White-throated Sparrows, which surprised me. A few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a late singing Tibicen dealbatus (dog-day cicada), several Wilson's Warblers, one Orange-crown, one Sage Thrasher, heard a flyover McCown's Longspur (maybe two), several migrating freshly-emerged Monarchs, and two late Common Nighthawks.
Crom Lake, which now has high water, had over 20 phalaropes, including several Red-necked.
Barn Swallows persist at all the above locations.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
At the intersection of Murphy's Pasture Road (GR96) and CR69 is a windmill with a cattle tank full of water. This has always been a bird-attracting area and a great place to study sparrows. In the general area of this intersection today were two Rock Wrens, several Savannah Sparrows, a Grasshopper Sparrow, several Chestnut-collared Longspurs (including lots of young birds that would be tough to get onto and ID without knowing the flight call), two late Lark Buntings, plus Brewer's, Clay-colored, Chipping, Vesper, and Gambel's race White-crowned Sparrows.
Crow Valley Campground, like Norma's Grove, was not crawling with birds but a long visit produced 42 species including Cassin's Kingbird, a late Western Kingbird, a late Townsend's Warbler, two Swainson's Thrushes, two latish Western Tanagers, a couple empids I did not see well enough to positively ID but believe one of them was a Cordilleran. The latter bird was in a juniper in the sw corner and had a very large caterpillar in its beak in very bad lighting. When I jack the exposure on the photos well enough to see anything, it is clear the bird has a big teardrop eyering, yellow underparts, and a long primary projection. No sapsuckers or White-throated Sparrows, which surprised me. A few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a late singing Tibicen dealbatus (dog-day cicada), several Wilson's Warblers, one Orange-crown, one Sage Thrasher, heard a flyover McCown's Longspur (maybe two), several migrating freshly-emerged Monarchs, and two late Common Nighthawks.
Crom Lake, which now has high water, had over 20 phalaropes, including several Red-necked.
Barn Swallows persist at all the above locations.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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