East of DIA and the First Creek Trail

September 7, 2019

Richard Stevens:

Temperatures reached 89 degrees today.  Winds were 7-8 mph with gusts to 11 mph in the morning.

Terry Michaels wanted to hunt for Cassin's Sparrows so we drove the gravel roads east of DIA Airport this morning.  

It is always the last place you look (of course because your done).  We checked Hudson Road (9/5 bird) and then 104th avenue and Box Elder Creek (9/6 bird) before finding a Cassin's Sparrow along Umpire Road just south of 104th Avenue.

None of the Red-headed Woodpeckers reported last spring was relocated.  Raptors included a Great Horned Owl, two Ferruginous Hawks, two Swainson's Hawks and a Red-tailed Hawk.

After I dropped Terry off, I drove to the First Creek Trail.  Winds were strange.  The Denver County half had winds of 7-8 mph while the Adams County trail was calm.

The Gray Flycatcher reported this morning by John Breitsch was not relocated.  I only detected one "empidonax" flycatcher in Adams County.  The bird was in the cottonwoods along the road running north from the Pond near the Rocky Mountain Arsenal border.  A Say's Phoebe was in the same tree.

A strange sparrow popped out of the tall grasses northeast of the same Pond.  It was small, rather flat headed, square tailed and its face looked like that of a Baird's Sparrow.  I was able to watch it for twenty seconds or so (and get one photo) before it dropped back down into the grasses.  

If it was a Grasshopper Sparrow, it had to be a juvenile.  However, the dark lateral throat stripe was strong.  I could not see if it had rufous tinged streaks on its flanks.  The breast streaks were well defined.  It may have been a juvenile Baird's Sparrow.  Will look at photos tomorrow.

Other birds encountered along the trail included two Blue Jays, four Barn Swallows, three Vesper Sparrows, fourteen Chipping Sparrows and two Lark Sparrows.

The Lark Sparrows were still in the same location on my return trip about 1.5 hours later.  They were south of the trail and over a clearing (pool of water, open area between cattail fields) about 50 yards west of the Adams County trailhead.

While trying to take of photo of the two birds there was motion along First Creek.  It turned out to be a Northern Waterthrush.  The bird walked along a grassy area on the south side of the creek (north side has tall cattails).

Eventually the bird hopped across the Creek and into the cattails.  I hurriedly circled round by way of Buckley Road to the south side of the Creek.  The Northern Waterthrush could be seen walking among the cattails.  Unfortunately, my camera would not focus through the cattails and on the bird.

The Barn Owl that nested in the owl box we constructed last year is gone.  She fledged three owlets this summer!

No Short-eared Owls or Burrowing Owl were found this evening along the DIA Owl Loop as I drove home.