May 16, 2014
Richard Stevens:
Hello cobirders,
Bryan Ehlmann and I spent the last couple of days owling in Larimer & Jackson Counties. When we returned this afternoon, I dropped Bryan off and picked up Rebecca. We drove over to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal around 4:00 pm. It was a good chance! We hoped to find the Palm Warbler reported a couple of days ago along the south side of Mary Lake; that never happened.
Winds were 5+ mph and most of the birds were in the gulch just south of the Mary Lake trail. Hoping for a Northern Waterthrush walking along the trickle of water in the ditch, first we found a sparrow that we were almost sure was a Swamp Sparrow. One additional look would have been nice. However the sparrow stayed low in the willows along the gulch, eventually disappeared at the closed eastern end of the trail.
Our next bird was a thrush. We were allowed three or four looks of 20 seconds or so and were positive that it was a Gray-cheeked Thrush. It also moved from west to east up the gulch. As the Gray-cheeked Thrush was followed, we found two Swainson's Thrushes and a Hermit Thrush also.
Then we came upon a secretive warbler which appeared to be an "Oporornis" (no wingbars, gray head, olive back). With additional looks we saw a very narrow broken eye ring, gray head, and bright yellow belly. It looked like a female Mourning Warbler. Yellow in lower breast, belly and undertail coverts, shape of an "Oporornis" warbler. Too big, wrong shape, wrong colored head and wrong underneath colors to be a female Common Yellowthroat. Absent of Strong eye ring (broken in MacGillivray's Warbler and complete in Connecticut Warbler) and long undertail coverts with short looking tail ruled out other "Oporornis" warblers (wrong facial pattern for Kentucky Warbler).
Later we hiked to the Havana Ponds area. The dam broke during last fall's rain storms. The field below the dam is now filled with water and the "Havana Ponds" are a mudflat. We did not find the American Golden-Plover reported a few days ago. Two American Avocets were on the mud flats.
To our surprise, the flooded sandy field below the old dam had 500+ Ring-billed Gulls, a dozen California Gulls, four Franklin's Gulls and one Bonaparte's Gull. Among the many gulls was a larger black headed bird which turned out to be a Caspian Tern! This did solve our mystery of what happened to all the gulls at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal? High waters at Lake Ladora and Lower Derby Lake have left no exposed shore.
On our way out, another 300+ Ring-billed Gulls and half a dozen California Gulls were standing in the prairie dog town south of the Visitor's Center.
We had skipped lunch/dinner to get to the arsenal as the hours have been 6:00 am to 6:00 pm for quite some time. I flagged down a ranger who stated that as of 5/15, the new hours are sunrise to sunset. He also mentioned that they are becoming strict about enforcing the 30 mph speed limit (as a birder looking for birds, I seldom am going over 25 mph); watch out.
Other birds observed included many Western Kingbirds, four Eastern Kingbirds, one Cassin's Kingbird, Sparrows (Chipping, Lark, Song, Brewer's, Clay-colored, White-crowned and one Savannah), Swainson's Hawks, Red-tailed Hawk and one Golden Eagle.
Continued Good Birding!
Directions to birding spots on CoBus website:
http://coloradobirdingsociety.net16.net
Richard Stevens; Director, Colorado Birding Society
Denver, Colorado
Contact CoBus/Report Interesting Birds: 303-324-7994
Subscribe to "cobirders" by sending blank email to:
cobirders-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Read "cobirders" at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cobirders/messages
Richard Stevens:
Hello cobirders,
Bryan Ehlmann and I spent the last couple of days owling in Larimer & Jackson Counties. When we returned this afternoon, I dropped Bryan off and picked up Rebecca. We drove over to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal around 4:00 pm. It was a good chance! We hoped to find the Palm Warbler reported a couple of days ago along the south side of Mary Lake; that never happened.
Winds were 5+ mph and most of the birds were in the gulch just south of the Mary Lake trail. Hoping for a Northern Waterthrush walking along the trickle of water in the ditch, first we found a sparrow that we were almost sure was a Swamp Sparrow. One additional look would have been nice. However the sparrow stayed low in the willows along the gulch, eventually disappeared at the closed eastern end of the trail.
Our next bird was a thrush. We were allowed three or four looks of 20 seconds or so and were positive that it was a Gray-cheeked Thrush. It also moved from west to east up the gulch. As the Gray-cheeked Thrush was followed, we found two Swainson's Thrushes and a Hermit Thrush also.
Then we came upon a secretive warbler which appeared to be an "Oporornis" (no wingbars, gray head, olive back). With additional looks we saw a very narrow broken eye ring, gray head, and bright yellow belly. It looked like a female Mourning Warbler. Yellow in lower breast, belly and undertail coverts, shape of an "Oporornis" warbler. Too big, wrong shape, wrong colored head and wrong underneath colors to be a female Common Yellowthroat. Absent of Strong eye ring (broken in MacGillivray's Warbler and complete in Connecticut Warbler) and long undertail coverts with short looking tail ruled out other "Oporornis" warblers (wrong facial pattern for Kentucky Warbler).
Later we hiked to the Havana Ponds area. The dam broke during last fall's rain storms. The field below the dam is now filled with water and the "Havana Ponds" are a mudflat. We did not find the American Golden-Plover reported a few days ago. Two American Avocets were on the mud flats.
To our surprise, the flooded sandy field below the old dam had 500+ Ring-billed Gulls, a dozen California Gulls, four Franklin's Gulls and one Bonaparte's Gull. Among the many gulls was a larger black headed bird which turned out to be a Caspian Tern! This did solve our mystery of what happened to all the gulls at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal? High waters at Lake Ladora and Lower Derby Lake have left no exposed shore.
On our way out, another 300+ Ring-billed Gulls and half a dozen California Gulls were standing in the prairie dog town south of the Visitor's Center.
We had skipped lunch/dinner to get to the arsenal as the hours have been 6:00 am to 6:00 pm for quite some time. I flagged down a ranger who stated that as of 5/15, the new hours are sunrise to sunset. He also mentioned that they are becoming strict about enforcing the 30 mph speed limit (as a birder looking for birds, I seldom am going over 25 mph); watch out.
Other birds observed included many Western Kingbirds, four Eastern Kingbirds, one Cassin's Kingbird, Sparrows (Chipping, Lark, Song, Brewer's, Clay-colored, White-crowned and one Savannah), Swainson's Hawks, Red-tailed Hawk and one Golden Eagle.
Continued Good Birding!
Directions to birding spots on CoBus website:
http://coloradobirdingsociety.net16.net
Richard Stevens; Director, Colorado Birding Society
Denver, Colorado
Contact CoBus/Report Interesting Birds: 303-324-7994
Subscribe to "cobirders" by sending blank email to:
cobirders-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Read "cobirders" at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cobirders/messages
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