In Morgan County.
John Vanderpoel and I went out today starting with a visit to the Pawnee and Crow Valley. My advice if you plan to do the same—DON’T TAKE CO 14 EAST FROM I-25, REPEAT DON’T. The road between Ft. Collins and Ault has a several mile section that was one-lane with a dead stop wait of more than 30 minutes.
Finally after the wait, Norma’s Grove was very birdy with 6 sparrow species, lots of Wilson’s Warblers, Western Wood Pewees, Blue Grosbeaks and Sage Thrashers. McCown’s Longspurs persist through Murphy’s Pasture. In Crow Valley we were able to cross the creek to the south side, but picked the wrong, muddy spot to cross back and all we got for it was expected birds.
We headed east to Stoneham where the extensive but distant playa was full of water and birds including ibis and a Black-necked Stilt. Then we went south of CO 71 toward Brush and encountered several huge and very birdy playas three of which had roads going right through them offering up close and personal shorebird experiences. The first was at CO 71 and MCR JJ, the second on MCR 26 between JJ and II and the third at the corner of MCR 23 and HH. We had 12 shorebird species, hundreds of coots and Pied-billed Grebes and over 1,000 dabbling ducks. Cormorants, gulls and pelicans were also present. One of the playas (the one on MCR 26) had a pier with a boat. A county road grader came by and the operator asked if we were doing survey work for the new marina :>) I recommend a visit or two to these spots over the next two months. They will only improve as water evaporates and more mud flats are exposed.
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
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