It was a mem0rable Thursday morning for spring migrants in Denver City Park:
+ First record of a Northern Mockingbird in 72 years.
According to eBird, the species was last seen in the park by young Hugh Kingery on May 15, 1948, the third oldest eBird record until now for any of the 174 species seen in the the park since the 1940s.
This one briefly paused on the park road west of Duck Lake, tail pointing skyward, then flew to a small tree before disappearing over the fence into the Denver Zoo
+ Two Green-tailed Towhees, another seldom-seen visitor, one of them hanging with two White-crowned Sparrows along that same zoo fenceline
+ Spotted Towhee, an infrequent visitor
+ Three Vesper Sparrows
+ A pair of Swainson's Hawks, perched in trees at the north and south ends of the big lawn south of the Denver Museum of Nature + Science
On a personal note, I also saw my first Great Horned Owl in nearly 200 visits to City Park. It was in a spruce tree near the 21st Avenue gate, being mobbed by Black-billed Magpies and Blue Jays, with robins, flickers, finches and doves watching the action.
Finally, the park's first Double-crested Cormorant chicks of 2020 (9 in 3 nests) have hatched and are begging to be fed at the Duck Lake rookery, with more than 550 adults and 260 nests.
Good birding!
Patrick O'Driscoll
Denver
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