Monday 29 February 2016

[cobirds] San Luis Valley New Arrivals

Hi all:
 
First observations of the season are always exciting and fun. Our long winters and the dearth of birds, makes the newcomers a welcome sight for our longing eyes. 
 
Jerry Poe and I got great looks today at Sagebrush Sparrow. There were at least 12 of them that we observed. Their gray heads, eye ring, central breast spot, brown backs and darker tails where readily visible as they even sang perched from shrubs. Other birds showed territorial behavior, fighting and chasing.  They can be seen in the San Luis Hills area by following my suggested routes in my birdbook guide. So todays sightings move the early date ahead by 4 days, with March 4th being the previous early date.
 
As we drove the county roads, a Sage Thrasher flew across the road. It's long tail and gray body were distinctive as it flew into the Greasewood brush. This extends the early date from March 1st to, well, February 29th! So it's a leap year bird and well normally it would have been March 1st anyway! Right!
 
Lots of birds moving in and about. Refuge is loaded with a variety of waterbirds. Canvasback were on the pond on the north of the Auto Tour Loop after the entrance. Cheers....
 
John Rawinski
Monte Vista, CO
 

--
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/3252c547-2a69-47f6-b31d-518b7939215c%40googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

No comments:

Post a Comment