Monday, July 13, 2009

Search for Cassin's Sparrows

July 8 & 9, 2009

Richard Stevens:

July 8

Bryan Ehlmann and I left early in the morning to search for Cassin's Sparrows in Arapahoe County. The morning was cool with temperatures in the high 60s and winds averaging 4 mph.

The plan was to first walk the southern side of DADS (Denver Arapahoe Disposal Site). There is a vast amount of undisturbed open land with wild grasses at this "garbage dump". Unfortunately most of it is not accessible to the public. We hoped to hear/see a Cassin's Sparrow from outside of the southern boundary.

I dropped Bryan off at the western end at Gun Club Road and Quincy Avenue. Then I drove to the eastern end and walked west.

I was the first to find a Cassin's Sparrow. It was "performing its mating flight" at 0.1 miles west of the entrance to Aurora Reservoir (South Powhaton Road).

We searched for another hour without finding any evidence of a second bird.

Our search continued by driving many of the country roads in eastern Arapahoe County. Any riparian areas were checked for Common Poorwills, Common Nighthawks and owls.

Our owl count consisted of 3 Great Horned Owls (2 locations). No goatsuckers were found during the day. By noon or so it was too hot (90+ degrees) and few birds were moving about.

July 9

Bryan and I tried the same technique as yesterday in Adams County, running point counts from just before sunrise (6:27 am). We stopped around noon as again the day became quite hot.

Our trek was not as successful as yesterday. No Cassin's Sparrows were found and our time to try was up until next month. Other counts a wait us.

We did find another pair of Great Horned Owls and a several Common Nighthawks flying overhead near Horse Creek Reservoir.

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