Tuesday, 14 October 2014

FW: [cobirds] Re: Re: condors in CO were NOT countable

All,
This is a reply to Wayne and Joe that I co-addressed to COBIRDS but that apparently didn't go out.
Dave Leatherman


From: daleatherman@msn.com
To: jroller9@gmail.com
Subject: RE: [cobirds] Re: Re: condors in CO were NOT countable
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 15:55:32 -0600

Wayne, Joe, et al,
I believe the cranes to which Wayne is referring occurred in September 1985.  One was near Hudson and one was near Severance.  A newspaper clipping I have rubber-cemented (yes, you read it right) in my journal (not to take away from eBird but let's hear it for "jBird") has a lot of interesting detail, of a sort not found in modern media accounts.  The Hudson bird was found on 9/11/85 on the property of Bill Phillips (near the jct of Weld 10 & 35 Roads).  The Severance bird was first noted on 9/23/85 on the property of Jack and Roy Schneider 0.75 miles e of Severance (along Weld CR74).  I saw the Severance bird on 9/26 while participating with a group of volunteers loosely organized by the DOW to keep hunters and the cranes separated.  The article also indicates both birds were part of the Gray's Lake, ID flock fostered by Sandhill Cranes, that they spent the summer prior to their CO appearance near Pinedale, WY., and then migrated down the Front Range instead of taking their normal route on the west side of the Divide to Bosque del Apache NWR in NM.  Both birds stayed in their respective CO locations until 24October.  The Severance bird was later spotted at Las Vegas NWR near Las Vegas, NM on 5Nov and finally made it to Bosque on 17December.  The Hudson bird ended up at Bernardo SWA 40 miles n of Bosque.

Sounds like neither bird would be countable because of the foster parent factor.

Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins


Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2014 14:49:00 -0600
Subject: Re: [cobirds] Re: Re: condors in CO were NOT countable
From: jroller9@gmail.com
To: bkpercival@yahoo.com
CC: wwathen@msn.com; bmaynard99@gmail.com; cobirds@googlegroups.com

Wayne, 
The Whooping Crane you are referring to from 11-14-04 was indeed from the wild flock. The exact location was a playa east of Lindon, west of Anton, that is bisected by highway 36.
There is an eBird hotspot named:

Lindon Pond Playa (Hwy. 36 & Washington Co. Rd. Z)

The Whooping Crane was there one afternoon, stayed overnight, then flew. As you do recall, it was watched, observed, babysat overnight by someone (Wayne? others?)
from the Fish and Wildlife Service, as legend has it. I am very interested in any details you can provide, as this is a neat story, one which I tell
every time I drive by that playa to any passengers  in my vehicle at the moment - aka "victims." With more detailed information, I can stretch this story from just east of Last
Chance all the way to Cope, maybe even Joe's.

This playa used to fill with water each spring and was a good place to see ducks and shorebirds by using a car as a blind.
The playa had some shallow water and waterfowl in it, maybe 8-10 years ago, but none lately during our prolonged drought. I recall that 
it has been dry even this summer and early fall, when nearby parts of Washington County featured many, many wet playas; info on that is also requested.
Could this playa have kind of "silted in" from runoff from the ag fields that surround it? If not silt, as least it seems to fill with a member of the spinach family, the common tumbleweed,
(Salsola australis, among other species).


Joe Roller, Denver

PS  A rule of thumb is that "wild flock" Whooping Cranes are seen east of the  Front Range and
the introduced flock from the San Luis Valley and counties north of there. Are there any valid records
of introduced Whooping Cranes from east of the Front Range?





On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 2:11 PM, 'Brandon' via Colorado Birds <cobirds@googlegroups.com> wrote:

To answer Wayne's question about Whooping Crane records in Colorado.  There are four accepted records of the wild flock that migrates from Canada to Texas (I looked all this information up on the CBRC Website, which all all that kind of info).

Nov 3 1973 in Greeley, Weld County
Mar 10-26, 1995 Thurston Reservoir, Prowers County
Nov 14-14, 2004 West of Anton, Washington County
Nov 1, 2006 Nee Grande Reservoir, Kiowa County
 
There might be more specimen records, that might be mentioned in Colorado Birds by Andrews and Righter.  If there have been other sightings, they weren't accepted by the CBRC, or not written up, this is why people need to document any very rare bird that they see/hear in Colorado.

Brandon Percival
Pueblo West, CO  

Hi Bill & All,

Another question for my old fuzzy mind.  There was one Whooping Crane that showed up on the front range, as I recall somewhere a little east of Ft. Collins or Loveland.  I was still with FWS and made a trip out there to check on it and the contingency plan that I recall was in place since I believe it was in the fall in hunting season.  But I don't remember if it was from the Gray's Lake, Idaho experimental flock or the Wood Buffalo flock that strayed a little further west than the usual migration route.  

Wayne Wathen
Highlands Ranch, CO



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