Hello, Birders.
-- With Bill Schmoker and a baker's dozen of participants in a TNC-Colorado Naturalist's Workshop, I enjoyed fine birding, superb natural history overall, and brilliant company this past weekend, Friday-Sunday, Mar. 20-22, in the San Luis Valley. Our main day afield was the first full day of Spring, Saturday, Mar. 21: clear, utterly calm (huh? in the San Luis Valley?), and mild.
I intended to sleep in Saturday, but the owls around the Zapata Ranch headquarters, Alamosa Co., put the kibosh on that. I'm pretty sure a male great horned owl was hooting from the roof right over my head. I stepped outside and instantly heard a western screech-owl. Then a couple long-eared owls. Then a northern saw-whet owl. All that without leaving the yard. Next it was up the entrance road and down a service road in the perfect darkness. Visible: the Milky Way, gloriously so; and three wing-clapping long-eared owls in a clearing. Audible: at least three more long-ears; three great horns; male and female saw-whets; and a screech-owl that wouldn't shut up (screech-owl audio-bombs a saw-whet: http://tinyurl.com/NSWO-2015-03-21).
The sky was brightening over the Sangre de Cristos, so it was over to the dune sea along Lane 6, Alamosa Co., for sunrise. The surround-sound sage thrashers (n=5) there were nice, but the real show-stoppers were the sagebrush sparrows (n=8), teed up on every greasewood and rabbitbrush, it seemed (photo: http://tinyurl.com/SbSp-2015-03-21a, audio: http://tinyurl.com/SbSp-2015-03-21b). Otherwise, a few horned larks and western meadowlarks, plus a loggerhead shrike that got a talking-to from one of the sagebrush sparrows (audio: http://tinyurl.com/LoSh-2015-03-21).
After breakfast, we explored the old Medano Ranch headquarters and vicinity, Alamosa Co. Our very first sighting was of a striking golden eagle on a utility pole right along the road. Mountain bluebirds (photo: http://tinyurl.com/MoBl-2015-03-21) and Say's phoebes were paired up (although not with each other) and prospecting for nest sites around the corrals. An acrobatic quintet of high-flying common ravens was stunning in the still blue sky, and a great horned owl at a nest (photo: http://tinyurl.com/GHOw-2015-03-21) was a crowd-pleaser. One of the ponds held diverse waterfowl, mainly chorusing redheads, but also an unexpected drake red-breasted merganser--the first I'd ever seen in Alamosa Co. And we heard and saw several dozen long-legged gray birds with red crowns; more on those in a bit...
The Medano Ranch's non-avian lifeforms put in a good showing: several herds of plains bison (video: http://tinyurl.com/PlBi-2015-03-21), a smattering of wapiti (elk, or, in Utah, "alk"), several North American porcupines (photo: http://tinyurl.com/NAPo-2015-03-21), and a den ("hibernaculum") of garter snakes (video: http://tinyurl.com/GaSn-2015-03-21). (Does anyone know if the snakes are Plains garter snakes, Thamnophis radix?). Insects were elusive, but I think the butterfly was a spring white, and I'd like to think the briefly glimpsed cicindelid was the endemic Great Sand Dunes tiger beetle.
Next was lunch, then a bit of do-your-own-thing time. A few of us explored the grounds of Zapata Ranch proper, a riot of pinyon jays (audio: http://tinyurl.com/PiJa-2015-03-20). We believe there were at least 350 of these "flying monkeys" of the bird world; most were in big flocks, but a few were paired up. Also: mountain and western bluebirds (photo: http://tinyurl.com/WeBl-2015-03-20), a Clark's nutcracker or two, a flock of Cassin's finches, and bushtits aplenty.
The early-season insect fauna around the Zapata Ranch was diverse but flighty. Case in point: the butterflies, generally too fast, too small, and too brief--except for the handsome Milbert's tortoiseshells; we saw pairs in a couple of places. Small, dark, bee-like robber flies were widespread; genus Laphria, I'm guessing? Gordon the friendly bison stopped by, and a coyote trotted past.
It was getting on toward evening, and we headed over to Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, Alamosa Co. On final approach, we drove slow through the town of Monte Vista, so that we could add to our list a whole bunch of birds we hadn't yet ticked: rock pigeon, Eurasian collared-dove, American crow, European starling, great-tailed grackle, house finch, and house sparrow. How low can you go?
Pretty much our first bird at the refuge was a lost black-capped chickadee, not really what we had in mind. But things got back on track, and we were soon enjoying the sorts of birds one looks for at Monte Vista refuge at this time of year: One of the ponds had ruddy ducks, buffleheads, and lesser scaup; another had many northern pintails and a few cinnamon teal; northern harriers were constantly in sight; and we heard marsh wrens at one juncture. Western chorus frogs were audible everywhere.
The real action was at a pull-off along Alamosa Co. Rd. 8 S, where the several thousand "white-cheeked geese" appeared mainly to be cackling geese. Also three gleamingly white Ross's geese. And the rare black brant (photo: http://tinyurl.com/BlBr-2015-03-21), present at the refuge since the beginning of the week. But the star attraction had to be the sandhill cranes.
We'd been seeing and hearing them in dribs and drabs throughout the day, but we definitely saved the best for last. More than 10,000 sandhill cranes were gathered in the fields and marshes near the intersection of Colo. 15 and Alamosa Co. Rd. 8 S, prancing and capering, tossing down quinoa, and every once in a while putting up in great thundering clouds (video: http://tinyurl.com/SaCr-2015-03-21). I suppose I'm biased, but I think the sandhill cranes of the San Luis Valley have to be counted on any short list of the great natural spectacles in the U.S.
Speaking of great spectacles... On the drive back to the Zapata Ranch along U.S. 150, we saw something astonishing: the almost-new moon nearly occulting Mars, with brilliant Venus just above. (And Uranus technically in the same frame, although too low and dim to see.) I wonder what the folks at the UFO watchtower, Saguache Co., were thinking (and doing) at the time.
And speaking of the UFO watchtower... Sunday morning, Mar. 22, after an encore performances by the owls, pinyon jays, and Sagebrush sparrows, and after a hearty breakfast, and after the obligatory visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park, it was time to disperse. I was with the group that headed east, over La Veta Pass and its GPS-incapacitating magnetic anomaly. We made it. But I kinda wonder about the group that was headed north to the UFO watchtower...and the American alligators...and the Fata Morgana...and the chorus line of dust devils... There's never a dull moment in the San Luis Valley.
Thanks to Bill Schmoker for finding the great birds and wildlife; thanks to Audrey Wolk, Mandy Timbers, and Alston Williamson with The Nature Conservancy in Colorado for expertly handling every logistical detail, and then some; and thanks to the energetic participants for their great companionship and all the wonderful memories.
Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado
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