[cobirds] Elbert County 5/12

An outing to Elbert County on 5/12 focused mostly on the northeastern portion of the county, and the central eastern area. All playas and seasonal type ponds I visited were all dry. More permanent bodies of water such as Ball Reservoir and the Hwy 86 roadside pond had water, but at its lowest levels in a few years. There was a moderate cross-section of waterfowl (nothing really rare). Shorebirds were limited to Ball Reservoir, which had among others 3 Sanderlings and 2 Long-billed Curlews. 

Owling and predawn efforts recorded Eastern Screech-Owl in two places along East Bijou Creek, one actually in Arapahoe Co and one in Elbert. Elbert is beyond the range of the species given in the Atlas II publication but I have recorded them in Elbert in 2015 and 2016, too, now in three different areas. 2 Common Poorwills called at Cedar Point, where they occupy a localized patch of open juniper woodland, and one more was in similar habitat near the east end of the public part of CR 166 near Agate. These known locations, somewhat outliers in the species' range.

The highlight of daytime birding was certainly the singing White-eyed Vireo along East Bijou Creek at CR 162. East Bijou and other patches of habitat near water in the Agate region also had Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, Palm Warbler, Dusky Flycatcher, Marsh Wren, Orchard Oriole, and a good cross-section of western migrants. Great Blue Herons were on nests at East Bijou near CR 178. These were new for my knowledge, but I see a confirmed square in that same area for Atlas !!, so perhaps it is a known spot. Regardless, breeding Great Blues seem very local in ELB. 11 Cedar Waxwings were at Agate..

Big Sandy Creek at CR 118 south of Agate had Northern Waterthrush, Least Flycatcher, Dusky Flycatchers, White-winged Dove, and Gray Catbird (sparse in ELB). 

It was great to see flocks of Lark Buntings and hear the singing males again. Detections of other prairie specialists included Mountain Plovers at CR 153, 134 and 70 (4 total), and McCown's Longspurs at CR 153, 134, 169, and 66 (19 total).

As a semi-interesting aside, tallies of kingbirds from the many locations where I recorded numbers (i.e., excluding some seen which driving between spots) were 245 Western Kingbirds, 48 Cassin's Kingbirds, and 4 Eastern Kingbirds. This reflects relative abundance for these species in ELB, noting though that I did not spend too much time at the margins of the pine forest (which are good for Cassin's) and Eastern is just arriving so its numbers are still lower than what they will be soon.

David Suddjian

Ken Caryl Valley 

Littleton, CO

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