Miracles never cease. After 40+ years, and five tries up to CR5 in the last 8 days, I saw Baird's Sparrows in Colorado this morning (8/11) on Larimer CR5. Following the recipe provided by Nick, David, and Georgia from their most recent sightings yesterday, I arrived at the spot 1.7 miles north of Buckeye Road (CR82) at 6:20am. Checking every single thing with feathers on the road and fencelines, at 6:25am two Baird's Sparrows were in the road with Lark Buntings, Grasshopper Sparrows and Vesper Sparrows picking things (couldn't tell if insect or plant) and chasing each other. They flew to the fence west of the road briefly where I got a few photos. A Colorado Parks and Wildlife truck on its way to the prairie-dog town further north along CR5 stirred things up and the two birds were not seen again. At 1.8 miles north of CR82 at 6:30-6:35 I got photos of what I think was a third bird on the fence west of the road.
As everybody who has been there has noticed and remarked, the situation is difficult because everything has stripes, most have white outer tail feathers, most have some fashion of a central crown stripe, few birds are singing (or can be heard because of one thing or another: idling coal trains, moving coal trains, wind, that concert in 1968, and even vehicle noise on I-25 to the east). Today one of the photographed Baird's Sparrows has a distinctly forked tail (very Savannah Sparrowish). Baird's is supposed to have the squarest tail of the Ammodramus group, and yet the head and back of this fork-tailed individual are matches for Baird's. Throw in the fact some Savannah Sparrows have white outer tail feathers, lots of yellow tones on the head, quite similar markings, it becomes pretty easy to forget about your gut and over-think the situation. Most of the time when I overthink, rare species morph into the most likely species. I suspect with some birders under the influence of desire (can DPW issue a citation for BUI?), it is the other way around. Both are wrong.
Thanks again to Nick and associates for getting onto, and persisting, with this situation.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
As everybody who has been there has noticed and remarked, the situation is difficult because everything has stripes, most have white outer tail feathers, most have some fashion of a central crown stripe, few birds are singing (or can be heard because of one thing or another: idling coal trains, moving coal trains, wind, that concert in 1968, and even vehicle noise on I-25 to the east). Today one of the photographed Baird's Sparrows has a distinctly forked tail (very Savannah Sparrowish). Baird's is supposed to have the squarest tail of the Ammodramus group, and yet the head and back of this fork-tailed individual are matches for Baird's. Throw in the fact some Savannah Sparrows have white outer tail feathers, lots of yellow tones on the head, quite similar markings, it becomes pretty easy to forget about your gut and over-think the situation. Most of the time when I overthink, rare species morph into the most likely species. I suspect with some birders under the influence of desire (can DPW issue a citation for BUI?), it is the other way around. Both are wrong.
Thanks again to Nick and associates for getting onto, and persisting, with this situation.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
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