[cobirds] Baird's Sparrows in Larimer County

Everyone on COBIRDS has no doubt heard about, maybe even gone to see, the remarkable appearance of Baird's Sparrows in northern Larimer County.  This apparent expansion of their breeding range is hundreds of miles south of where history tells us they nest.  About the closest breeding areas shown on standard field guide maps are  extreme northeastern WY and northwestern SD.  In my 42+ years of birding in CO, with concentration on the eastern plains, this is about the most exciting thing that's happened.  It is certainly more important, and maybe just as exciting in many respects, as rarities like Curlew Sandpipers, Common Ground-Dove, Lucy's Warbler, Eastern Whip-poor-will, Hermit Warbler, Black Skimmer, Painted Redstart, Brown-crested Flycatcher, Royal Tern, etc.  These BAIS are more than ticks marks on our lists.  These birds are an affirmation of quality habitat (some of which is shared by cattle), the strategy of purchasing open space lands, of proper management practices, of birding as a mechanism for capturing valuable scientific information, and probably many other elements of both the land and society.  These birds have chosen a fairly large chunk of Colorado grassland and deemed it quality enough to go all in.  Nothing is more important to birds, or any organism under the influence of evolution (which is all of them) than reproducing.  Over the measurable past, BAISs have always flown over CO between their northern breeding grounds and mostly Mexican wintering areas.  They maybe (usually?) do so in one night and rarely set foot on our prairie.  Thus, the shortage of sightings of any kind in any season. But it seems in the last two summers at least, they have decided northern CO's response to timely rains meets their needs.  Perhaps they did the same on Hanover Road east of Colorado Springs a few years ago, too.  The latter occurred within the field work window for Breeding Bird Atlas II.  BUT BREEDING STILL REMAINS TO BE CONFIRMED.  Some of us think this is remarkable, sad and maybe a tad embarrassing.  Are we, both avid amateurs and professional monitoring agencies, only about our lists, fleeting field visits, chases and contracts so inflexible as to not accommodate a phenomenon like this?  With all our training and abilities learned and/or honed during BBA II and other work, with our arsenal of high-resolution telephoto-laden cameras, with relatively low gas prices, and natural or generated enthusiasm, we ought to be able to tie down this fact of nesting within the borders of CO.  Somebody ought to be able to see one of the behaviors characteristic of "confirmation": copulation, a food delivery to a mate or invisible nestlings, find an occupied nest with eggs or nestlings.  We got photographs of juveniles last summer along Larimer CR5 east of the Rawhile Power Plant.  But while suggestive, I suppose these photographs do not rule out breeding at a site a day or few days' flight away.  There was a report last week of a juvenile from a great birder who visited Soapstone Prairie Natural Area.  Even more suggestive of local breeding, but there is still the slim chance it slept the night before near its nest 20 miles away in WY.

                                                                                                                    

 

Nick Komar and I, and several other Fort Collins locals, are starting to obsess on this issue of proving BAIS nesting.  What could be a more important contribution to our knowledge of CO birds over the next 2-3 weeks?  Based on what we have observed with multiple singing males the last few weeks, it would seem this is the window of opportunity for nesting confirmation.  This has to be more important than finding or chasing a species you "need" for your year list, changing your oil, or sleeping.

I will personally put up a bounty of an 8x10 framed print of a sex-crazed male BAIS singing straight up to the heavens for the first person who legally documents beyond any doubt the first nesting of BAIS in CO. 

Good luck to participants on Nick's CFO Field Trip to Soapstone day after tomorrow.  Good luck to anyone else who takes up the challenge over the next 2-3 weeks.  If and when you come up with proof, please post it to this forum.  Please remember it is a 4 mile hike from where the public has to park to begin the hike out to the BAIS locations on Pronghorn Loop and Plover Trails, AND that you are not allowed to go off trail without formal permission from the City.  We decided the best strategy the other day was for each of us to locate a singing male and just watch it intently for confirmation of nesting behaviors (which, of course, we did not see).

Thank you.

Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins