(read on or skip to the bottom for a little quiz of ubiquity)
Crow Valley Road (near Bailey) produced the third area of Park County where I have found breeding season Virginia's Warblers, all disjunct. There is (1) the county's largest area of occurrence generally south of Guffey in Gambel oak woodland, and (2) an area north of Lake George along Forest Road 211 in from Tarryall Road in recovering burned forest where they favor areas of young aspen amid scattered Douglas-fir and Ponderosa pine. And now (3) this area along Crow Valley Road, where I had two territorial singers this morning in an open stand of Ponderosa on rocky slopes with several shrub species, near a creek with willows and some blue spruce. Nearby I had two singing Lazuli Buntings, also good for Park County in June. Two Band-tailed Pigeons flew over.
Park CR 64 had nothing of special note, but was birdy in places. Park CR 68 had the usual Great Blue Heron rookery in spruce along the North Fork of the South Platte just downstream of Bailey (at least 4 nests with large young), one each of all three Accipiter species, a family of Am. Dippers at the crossing of Craig Creek at Estebrook.
Passing into Jefferson there was another Nor. Goshawk, and the hummer feeders at Windy Peak Camp had an adult male Rufous Hummingbird, my 1st this season. There were some Evening Grosbeaks along Road 543 near the junction with Road 550. An Ovenbird along a small stream along Road 543 was west of the usual front of the Front Range, but in similar habitat.
Red Crossbills were noted at a number of stops over the morning, but were not numerous. Both Type 2 and Type 5 were heard, with the former being more frequent. I had a few Northern Pygmy-Owls, and a few encounters with Dusky Grouse, including a female with young in Jefferson Co at Road 543.
Now a little quiz. I made 63 birding stops on this outing, most of which were stationary for 5-7 minutes, and most were in pine forest. There was one species that I detected at 100% of the 63 stops. While some other species were frequent, no others came close to being detected at 100% of the stops. Which was this most ubiquitous species? I'll post an answer later this evening.
David Suddjian
Littleton, CO
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