Spent the 16th to 20th in Jackson County where water is plentiful and wild flowers can distract attention from the birds. Here are a few highlights.
-- CR30 at the Michigan River: Veery, Norhern Waterthrush, and Fox Sparrow heard (16th). Veery also heard the following day near the Aspen Campground.
Beaver Lodge Trail: This is a great trail for willow carr birds. Veery, Fox Sparrow and MacGillivray's Warbler heard (17th). With patience, this may be a good place for a chance to see the Veery early or late in the day.
Fox Lake (Arapaho NWR): Greater Scaup, Forster's Terns (17th).
CO 125 just over 8 miles north of CR28: A Long-billed Curlew chasing a California Gull caught my attention. A pair of curlews were shepherding at least two downy chicks (17th). This may be the family found previously by Robert Martinez and Kara Spitler.
Arapaho NWR tour route: Long-billed Curlew and surprisingly few grebes or ducks. Western Willet (17th).
Diamond J Ranch SWA: American Bittern heard at twilight (17th).
Jackson County Lions Club Wetland: Great Blue Heron raiding the old Bald Eagle nest for a stick (18th).
Walden Reservoir: 5 Bufflehead: Pied-billed, Eared and Western Grebes with young; Great Egret and Cattle Egret on nests on the big island along with Snowy Egrets and Black-crowned Night-Herons; 6 Black Terns: and Forster's Terns. Most of the colonial waterbirds nesting on the large island can be seen from the southeast side of the reservoir. However, some of the birds in the heronry at the south end of the island can be seen better from the northeast. One delight was a Pied-billed Grebe distracting with distress calls accompanied by splashing with legs and wings. (18th)
Big Creek Lakes: Olive-sided Flycatchers (19th and 20th).
North Platte River just west of Cowdrey: I stopped here to check the extensive banks for Bank Swallows. None were there, but a Willow Flycatcher immediately announced its presence and put in an appearance when I got out of the truck (20th).
A tale of two aspen groves: On the 19th, I stopped at an aspen grove along CR6W enroute to Big Creek Lakes. This grove is described on the CFO County Birding site for Jackson County. It is a beautiful, mature grove with nice understory but precious few birds. In particular, the cavity nesters that made aspen groves a delight for breeding bird atlasers were absent. On the 20th, I stopped at an aspen grove straddling CR6A. The grove was teeming with birds including 5 cavity nesting species including Red-naped Sapsucker and Downy Woodpecker. I suspect that the healthy grove along CR6W does not have the fungus rot that makes the wood easy for woodpeckers to drill in. In 35 miutes walking through the grove, I saw no signs of the fungus or of woodpecker cavities. I did see one nest cavity at the CR6A grove and I suspect a walk through the grove would turn up fungus conks on some of the trees.
--
Chuck Hundertmark
2546 Lake Meadow Drive
Lafayette, CO 80026
303-604-053118th
Cell: 720-771-8659
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