Thursday, June 6, 2013

A Visit to Weld County

June 5, 2013

Richard Stevens:

This morning, Bryan Ehlmann and I drove to a friend's ranch east of Prospect Valley (Weld).  We stopped at Banner Lakes Wildlife Area (Weld) and circled the southern ponds (northern ponds closed to public until July 15).

A few Yellow Warblers and House Wrens were just about all that we found until we ran across a Red-eyed Vireo (in the western windbreak of cottonwoods).

Later, we spent several hours at our friend's ranch.  His Long-eared Owls are nesting.  With a scope, we can just barely see small parts of the female sitting on a nest.  We are hoping that they will nest successfully again this year!

He also has a pair of Mountain Plovers in one of his fields.  We caught a glimpse of presumably the male walking around.  Without tramping around, we were not able to locate the female or nest.  I say nest loosely as I have found several nests with eggs on the Pawnee National Grasslands.  They simply lay 2-4 eggs in a depression in the bare ground.

Burrowing Owls have returned to a Prairie Dog Town nearby (up to 7).  Location is not important to reveal as they can be seen along the DIA Owl Loop in Adams County.

It was overcast and cool (middle 50s) most of the day, good conditions to search for migrant birds so we walked circled the 8.7 miles around Barr Lake (Adams).  Regrettably, nothing uncommon was found.

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