Metro State Parks July 9, 2007

Nicole Juhan and I birded around several local State Parks in our limited time today.

We hoped to find a Cinnamon Teal pair which appeared to be nesting several weeks ago at Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe County). Unfortunately we could not find them today. View of much of the water surface at the 12 mile Beaver Pond is obstructed by cattails. A pair of Blue-winged Teal did swim out of the cattails.

A nice highlight was 3 Virginia Rails that walked along the shoreline just below the last bench at the southeast corner of the Beaver Pond. A lone Snowy Egret also searched for food in the swallow pond.

Many American White Pelicans and a Western Grebe were at the southeast corner of the lake proper. A few Ring-billed Gulls flew around (but not many).

We watched at least 2 Black-chinned Hummingbirds fly around east of the Ranger’s Office. While we were doing this, Don Belts had seen 1 or 2 near the Shop Creek Parking Area. So there may be 4 or more around this year. We watched them nest two years ago. Perhaps the young returned to their birth place. I plan to try and get an accurate count of them on Thursday.

Not much was happening at the Cottonwood Creek Wetlands Pond. We did count 4 species of swallows flying around (again no Cinnamon Teal). Another Snowy Egret and an adult Black-crowned Night-Heron were also there.

Our next stop was Chatfield Reservoir (Jefferson/Douglas). We made a short walk south of Kingfisher Bridge (east side of the S. Platte River). At least 2 or 3 Least Flycatchers were heard and observed singing. Western Wood-pewees and House Wrens were numerous. Nicole found a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird sitting on a nest. A few Lark Sparrows flew about. We missed Spotted Towhees as the many mosquitoes urged us to move on to somewhere else.

A hike south of the Plum Creek Delta parking area added several Yellow Warblers and a MacGillivray's Warbler to our trip list. Again the numerous mosquitoes encouraged us to leave.

A drive along Castlewood Canyon Road (west side of Castlewood Canyon State Park) was interesting. Three or four Bobolinks were observed on the eastern hills about 0.2 miles south of the Winkler Ranch Entrance. We heard and observed a Dickcissel singing from the two dead willows along the creek just south of the entrance (alfalfa field here this year).

Both Mountain and Western Bluebirds were observed before we reached the State Park entrance. Several Tree Swallows were using some of the bluebird boxes.

A hike behind the old homestead building at the northwest corner of the park added two Spotted Towhees to our day list.