I headed out on Friday afternoon to Lamar in order to do some scouting for my trips in 10 days at the CFO Convention in Lamar. While migration was still a bit early, and conditions were unpleasantly windy, especially on Saturday, I found some interesting birds.
On Friday I headed east to the Arriba area and was able to find a couple of Mountain Plovers just south of town on 3f about a mile west of Old 63.
I continued on to Schaffer Reservoir in Lincoln County which is one of my favorite spots in that county. There always seems to be water here, and it is always chock full of birds. They are a bit distant, but easily scopeable, especially in the afternoon with the sun behind you. The reservoir is on private land, so you must stay on the road. That means that you may miss some stuff and not be able to ID quite everything, but this is still a spot worth a visit. It is on the “old” road that parallels US 287 between Hugo and Kit Carson. (Anyone who was on my SE Colorado field trip last May will remember the truly exciting time we had driving through the mud on this road, but that’s another story.) In any event, I recorded 42 species at this spot on Friday, and a full 1/3 of them required flagging notes on eBird, most because of the very large numbers of individuals out there. While none were eBird first observation for Lincoln County (which does have an eBird list of 296, after all), Trumpeter Swan and Great Egret were pretty darn good.
Saturday, I headed off to our neighbor to the east, so I can’t really report on the results on Cobirds (but let me titillate the 20 of you who have signed up for my trip to Kansas—I have some really good spots to visit including a private home in Garden City that just happens to have a yard list with over 30 species of Warblers!). One point of interest, however, the rest stop on US 50 east of Holly, but in Colorado, is a really nice spot for birding. I’ve asked Joe Roller to add it as a Colorado eBird Hotspot (and he has complied).
Today I started out at Lamar Community College Woods where at least three Northern Cardinals were singing, and a couple of Red-bellied Woodpeckers were calling. Best bird there for me, however, was a White-throated Sparrow. Lots of Yellow-rumps were the only warblers that I found. From Lamar I headed north to Sheridan Lake, which is a lake again. It was really covered with lots of stuff including 42 White-faced Ibis, 21 American Avocets, a flock of Least Sandpipers plus a few Baird’s, one Western and a Wilson’s Phalarope. Also present, 5 Black-crowned Night Herons. Brandon (the town, not the birder) had a Spotted Towhee and a Burrowing Owl, while nearby Sand Creek Massacre NHS featured a Rock Wren.
Finally I made my way up to I-70 at Siebert where the water treatment pond area had four Snowy Egrets and a Cattle Egret (seemingly a first county record). I also had a Virginia Rail call below the Flagler Dam.
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
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