Some posts of 2-3 days ago suggest that Cobirders might enjoy hearing about Urling's and my Birdathon quest on Friday. Starting at our Willow Lake Drive patch:
A frenzy of Violet-green Swallows! A dozen swarmed above a conifer forest like a throng of bees. A couple of pods of Turkey Vultures circled above us. We counted more species in our Franktown patch than we have seen this year. (We did get up earlier than usual, and walked both gullies that intersect our road instead of only one.
We heard our first-of-the-year Warbling Vireo ("how do you know that I'm here?") and listened to and saw singing White-crowned Sparrows (the Colorado mountain subspecies), and saw one Wigeon on the pond. The inevitable flock of Turkeys prowled under our feeders. And we enjoyed our usual scrub-oak denizens: Scrub-Jays, Chickadees, Nuthatches, House Finches with their delightful song, 7 active and warbling Black-headed Grosbeaks (they like suet cakes), and 8 Spotted Towhees. We spied an elusive Green-ttailed Towhee, a Catbird,. One flicker with a red stripe on the back of his neck as well as a red whisker—probably a hybrid.
Then we headed for Castlewood Canyon where we hoped to find White-throated Swifts; we didn't hear or see any, as we haven't so far this year. On the Winkler Ranch south of the Park we saw 13 Tree Swallows and two pairs of Western and two of Mountain Bluebirds, all claiming nest boxes.
Next we drove to Louviers, hoping to buttress the list. At the pond there we saw 8 Wood Ducks, a Gadwall, and 3 Shovelers. After lunch and a tour through the Louviers woods (Catbird, Yellow Warbler, House Wren) we drove the streets hoping to score a House Sparrow. We stopped at a terrific feeder which sported a passel of House Finches (we counted 24 in the town), plus a couple of Mourning and a couple Collared-Doves. And, a male Evening Grosbeak called from a pine tree that towered over the feeders. But no House Sparrows! After driving every street (and stopped only by a couple to check if we had a problem who turned out to feed birds, we left. Then, at the last building in town, a church, we heard and saw some elusive House Sprarows.
Only one trash bird left to find: Rock Pigeon. None in Louviers, none along the road, none that we could find in either Castle Rock or Franktown!
The gravel pit on Castlewood Canyon Road did have more ducks (including 17 Shovelers, and four shorebirds scurrying on a sand spit way across the water, a challenging scope view. We called them Killdeer & Spotted Sandpiper.
Hugh
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