Re: [cobirds] BAIRDS SPARROW (Larimer)

And here is the rest of the story....

The four of us decided to head to northeast Larimer County's CR5 north of Buckeye Rd. because of its excellent short-grass prairie habitat hoping to find longspurs (none found). However, we found dozens of Burrowing Owls and Grasshopper Sparrows, and somehow after about a mile and a half (of the 5 mile stretch of dirt road), the conversation turned to Baird's Sparrows, which happened to be my most wanted US life-bird. As we drove slowly up the road, recalling last year's experience of late-summer Baird's Sparrows in El Paso County, I heard an unusual song on the west side of the road (at 1.8 miles north of Buckeye Rd/AKA Larimer CR 82), and I exclaimed calmly "Wasn't that a Baird's Sparrow?" Dave Wade had heard it also and thought it sounded similar to a candidate Baird's Sparrow that had heard in late May at Douglas Reservoir, about 10 miles southwest of our location. I recorded the song onto my Sony digital voice recorder, and inside the car we compared it to recordings of Baird's Sparrow - a close match! My low quality recording has been uploaded onto www.xeno-canto.org, and can be heard here: http://www.xeno-canto.org/263746. The quality is so low (due to the bird's distance of several hundred meters and ambient wind) so you may need earphones. Xeno-canto couldn't even make a sonogram for it. This was after 9 am, and the bird was singing continuously about every 20 seconds, usually out of sight over a rise. We were only able to glimpse it on our side of the rise once when it briefly alighted atop a lone thistle and sang. We could see it further away if we cleared the rise by walking south on the road, or by climbing onto the roof of my birding van in order to see over the rise. At one point, we heard a second bird sing simultaneously. I would not be surprised if through the efforts of other observers over the next days/weeks, we discover a colony of Baird's Sparrows attempting to nest here. Needless to say, it would be a first for Larimer (for Colorado?), as the breeding range is normally several hundred miles north of Colorado. We did not try to draw the bird closer by playing a tape or playing back our recording, and I encourage others to also refrain from the use of playback. We also did not stray from the public roadside. Hopefully, these birds will become easy to see along the fence line of CR5 like the El Paso County birds did last year. Like El Paso County, there are plenty of adult and juvenile Grasshopper Sparrows present for comparison when the time comes.

 

So, if you visit the site, be sure to familiarize yourself (in advance!) with the songs of both Grasshopper and Baird's Sparrows, bring a telescope, and plan to visit before 10 am. After 10, songs were much more infrequent, and when we returned after lunch, we did not hear any songs from the Baird's Sparrows (we met another birder who heard just one distant song from the Baird's during a period of about an hour from 1-2 pm.) I suspect song activity increases again late in the day as well.

 

I look forward to hearing about the experiences of other observers along CR5 over the next days and weeks. Put your sightings onto eBird and include any quality photos or audio recordings you obtain. At the same time, if you observe inappropriate behavior from other birders visiting the site please encourage respect for the birds, other birders and private property (i.e. ABA ethics).

 

Nick Komar

Fort Collins CO

---

From: "Nick Komar" <quetzal65@comcast.net>
To: "cobirds" <cobirds@googlegroups.com>
Cc: "Cole Wild" <birdingwild1@yahoo.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2015 9:35:14 AM
Subject: [cobirds] BAIRDS SPARROW (Larimer)

Four of us are currently listening to a singing Baird's sparrow on the west side of Larimer County Road 5 near rawhide energy station. This is about 2 miles north of the Buckeye Road. It is opposite a blue tractor parked on the east side of the dirt road. This may be Larimer County's first nesting Bairds sparrow so please be considerate and do not disturb the bird. It's not necessary to play tapes because it is singing constantly and unsolicited. If you pass the Windmill you've gone too far. It seems to be on a territory that is only about 200-600 feet off the road but it rarely comes up in a location that it can be seen. It is near a yellow marker. I was able to make an audio recording that matched our recording on the Sibley app but we are waiting for a photo opportunity still. There may be a second bird singing much further away. Stay tuned for more about that. There are plenty of grasshopper Sparrows around as well singing. Later today I will post a link to the audio recording and any photographs that we might obtain.

Nick Komar, with John Shenot, Dave Wade and Austin Hess.

Sent from my iPhone

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/3ED92B01-0CA8-4A16-ABD6-654B5B2D3029%40comcast.net.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.