Hello all,
Mark Szabo and I spent a lovely weekend birding in the San Luis Valley, spending most of our time at Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge (about 14 hours total) and then had a relatively short 2 hours at Alamosa NWR. Someone on Cobirds recently asked if the Sandhill Cranes were still in the valley. I can answer with an unequivocal 'Yes!' Monte Vista NWR is filled with stereo surround sound of Sandhill Cranes - flying, kettling, foraging, dancing, and even napping on occasion. We counted about 4000 Cranes on Saturday and a slightly smaller 3000 today (ebird flagged both of those numbers). The Marsh Wrens put on amazingly vocal shows- every stop in either refuge was filled with Marsh Wren chittering away. In spite of the chattering, they were remarkably tolerant and visible while we watched.
At Monte Vista NWR, almost all of the expected ducks were seen along with well over 400 Canada Geese: Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintails, American Wigeons, Redheads, Canvasback (just 1!), Gadwall, Ring-necked Duck, Ruddy Duck. We also had one each of Eared, Pied-billed and Western Grebes, hundreds of American Coots and 27 Killdeer. Amongst the many Red-winged Blackbirds was one lingering Yellow-headed Blackbird. Raptors were well-represented with Red-tailed Hawks leading the numbers race, followed by Northern Harriers, American Kestrels and a Prairie Falcon.
When we moved on to Alamosa NWR, it was relatively quiet though we did add 2 Greater Yellowlegs and a Northern Shrike to the weekend list.
In regards to the discussion about ebird vs Cobird posting, I would add the following: I bird regularly and often and nearly always put my lists on ebird and nearly never post here. I like to contribute to the citizen science efforts and don't see my wanderings as particularly exciting or fruitful for discussion (as Joey Kellner aptly said for some people, I bird for me and what I get from being in nature). I always think that anyone who wants to check out an area that I have been can check ebirds for what has been seen lately and they can find my specific reports there. However, the one area where Cobirds might serve the communication purpose better is with reports/numbers or species that get flagged. Those will not show up on the Hotspot list though they are still reflected on my personal list. For example, anyone looking at the Monte Vista NWR list for the weekend would not initially see any of the following from my report because they were all flagged (perhaps the filters are too low in this area?):
4000 (or 3000) Sandhill Cranes
400 Canada Geese from Saturday though 563 was okay today (the change to November I presume)
8 Song Sparrows
27 Killdeer
1 Yellow-headed Blackbird
Some have since been cleared and added to the list, others have not.
Happy birding to all and to all a good night,
Gloria Nikolai
usually in El Paso County
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