[cobirds] Sandhill Crane/Weld

Hi all

Just had a high-flying flight of 50+ Sandhill Crane above house heading SE.

Thanks Gary Lefko, Nunn

http://www.friendsofthepawneegrassland.org/

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/birds-and-more-of-the-pawnee-national-grassland

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[cobirds] Lewis' Woodpecker questions

Inquiring minds...

Yesterday I saw the one that's been hanging around south mesa trail in Boulder.

A lifer for me.

Fascinating that it flycatches. It certainly does not look agile enough for that.

 

I got really good looks for 20 minutes. Later I reviewed the field markings and don't understand why this individual did not have the grey neck. I did not find any reference that characterized distinctions of a juvenile. Thoughts?

I also wondered why sightings for this species are so rare. So I looked at the ebird science page for the abundances and migration animation. It seems there is not really a substantial change along the front range during migration and it seems this is a year-round home for some. Then I looked for the population reports and was startled to see the decline and the total number of like 70k. That's depressing. The hypothesis for the decline did not make intuitive sense to me; forest management techniques with regard to dead trees for nesting.

Final question is if this Boulder individual is using that cottonwood for food caching now. The guides say they do that in the fall. While I was watching (early morning) it basically was just clinging to one spot on the tree without doing much other than looking around occasionally. I wonder if it was literally covering a crack with it's cache. And how does it keep competitors from the cache? That tree is a hangout for many other possible opportunist. While I was there a Hairy, Flickers and a Stellars came.

Ron Bolton

Larimer county

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[cobirds] Bird Conservancy of the Rockies - Barr Banding Report, October 1

Bird of the day was the White-throated Sparrow - 2 of them, 1 white-striped and 1 tan, both young.  Also had our second Creeper, which although not rare made us all very happy.  Had a total of 39 new birds:

Brown Creeper 1

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 6

Hermit Thrush 5

Gray Catbird 1

Orange-crowned Warbler 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Audubon's 2

Spotted Towhee 1

Song Sparrow 4

Lincoln's Sparrow 3

White-throated Sparrow 2

Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow 10

Dark-eyed Junco, Oregon 1

Dark-eyed Junco, Pink-sided 2

I believe our Covid-limited visitor program is close to full for the 

balance of the banding season. There may be a couple of slots for 

individual people. For more information go to 

www.birdconservancy.org/bandingregister

Meredith McBurney

Bander, Barr Lake Station

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

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[cobirds] Turkey Vulture kettle, Castlewood Canyon - Douglas

An addendum: while I was watching for fly out from the main night roost for summer resident Turkey Vultures (and expecting some migrants to be using the same vast night roost area),  other CPW Raptor monitors were watching from a more southeasterly location — and counted more than 300 TUVUs in thermals over Castlewood Canyon SP. An occasional Swainson's Hawk and Northern Harrier were also in the thermals, but more than 99% were vultures. Sunday into Monday was a most significant migration day for vultures and it was the highest number of any autumn day in several years when we have monitored. These included the 172 I counted leaving the roost.

Karen Metz

CPW Raptor Monitor

Franktown

Karen tried to send this yesterday but it bounced.

Hugh

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[cobirds] Timnath reservoir

I saw hundreds of cormorants today!  Lot's of pelicans & a few Mountain Bluebirds on the fence posts near the south entrance.

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[cobirds] Pinyon Jays in Bent County

Birders,

I just had two calling Pinyon Jays fly through, and briefly land, in my
yard in Las Animas, Bent County CO. This is only the second time I've
had them in my yard, or in the lower Arkansas River Valley, and may
signal an irruption away from their normal habitat in the canyon country
farther to the south and west. Be on the lookout for this very rare
visitor.

Duane Nelson

Las Animas, Bent County CO

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[cobirds] Re: Another ID?

Hi Amy!

In light of your last comment, I thought this little tip might help you as you continue to study birds: more times than not, the birds we see "in the field" don't perfectly match a 5-star photo of an adult in breeding plumage. If you're using a phone app like the Merlin ID app (which is an amazing app, by the way), it's good to be aware that the birds you find won't always look exactly like what you see in those photos. The Sibley Guide does a fairly good job of covering the major plumages for both sexes and most ages, but birds molt too, and at that point, it's often best to look to other field marks that aren't just color-pattern based.

Have fun out there!

The birds are happy, and so am I

~Caleb Alons, Larimer County

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