Sedgwick County Birding

Instead of waiting a week for a bird trips to finish and getting reports, I will transcribe telephone reports of current bird trips. Amy Davenport

October 14, 2011

The CoBus group visited only four Walk In Areas in Sedgwick County today.

Their first stop was DePoorter Lake. Sparrows were numerous and included two Harris's Sparrows, a White-throated Sparrow, four Song Sparrows and many White-crowned Sparrows. The surprise bird was a late Dickcissel.

Ovid Woods and Sedgwick Bar Wildlife Area were quiet. No Northern Cardinals were found around town.

They found a Sprague's Pipit at WIA (CR 59 & 16). A dozen sparrows at WIA (CR 15 & 8) gave them fits. Two interesting sparrows were left unidentified. They acted like "ammodramus" sparrows, disappearing in grasses with short flights between, not allowing looks of any length.

A Red-bellied Woodpecker was at the Sedgwick Cemetery. It was watched flying south toward town.

The WIA at CR 32 & 11 is part of Sedgwick Draw. No Short-eared Owls showed up this afternoon.

After dark, the group joined Roger Danka and watched two Eastern Screech-Owls on his ranch.

Phillips County Walk-In-Area Surveys

Instead of waiting a week for a bird trips to finish and getting reports, I will transcribe telephone reports of current bird trips. Amy Davenport

October 13, 2011

The CoBus group continued to bird Walk In Areas, today in Phillips County.

They visited eight WIAs today. Selection was those along Frenchman Creek and areas visited in past years.

Highlights included:

# Walk In Area (CR 31 to 33, north of CR 22) (Restricted Fee Area)
* Baird's Sparrow (Ehlmann) first 10/13

# Walk In Area (CR 49 to 51, north of CR 38) (Restricted Fee Area)
* Sprague's Pipit (Ehlmann) first 10/13

They also stopped at Frenchman Creek Wildlife Area, which was described as "quite birdy". Dozens of sparrows included 2 Field Sparrows, 2 White-throated Sparrows, 12+ White-crowned Sparrows, 1 Lincoln's Sparrow, 12+ Vesper Sparrows. They also found an interesting "ammodramus sparrow" which was not identified.

Sprague's Pipits were found at three locations including the one above. A Barn Owl was at one WIA. Two Eastern Screech-Owls were found after dark.

They found all three common longspurs at more than one location (McCown's, Chestnut-collared and Lapland Longspur).

Target birds for Friday: Sharp tailed Sparrow or Smith's Longspur would be nice.

Weather Thursday: Highs reached 75 degrees, winds steady at 10 mph. Winds were not as bad as Wednesday, still made birding difficult.

Notes on Walk-In-Areas: Richard Stevens and Bryan Ehlmann started monitoring several dozen Walk In Areas in 2008. They have talked to three DOW officers about access.

BE SURE TO KNOW THE RULES (see Walk In Atlas at DOW office or online for rules and maps). Hunting license is required. You may run into hunters; Richard suggests moving on to another area if any cars are in the designated parking lots for the WIAs.

Walk-In-Areas in Yuma County

Instead of waiting a week for a bird trips to finish and getting reports, I will transcribe telephone reports of current bird trips. Amy Davenport

October 12, 2011

The CoBus group after a great morning at Hale Ponds (Yuma County) visited seven WIAs.

They heard one or two Eastern Screech-Owls calling at Hale Ponds before sunrise. A walk along the Republican River from the Kansas border to the western Hale Pond found a fall plumage Bay-breasted Warbler. Later a Swamp Sparrow was seen the cattails at Hale Ponds.

The WIAs (Walk-In-Areas) were not as exciting as yesterday. A Savannah Sparrow at one area peaked interest. They gave chase for 30 minutes before identifying it.

A Barn Owl was flushed accidentally at WIA (CR 56 & H). An Eastern Screech-Owl was found at (CR 55 & K).

At dusk, they drove along Yuma County Road 45. No Greater Prairie-Chickens found but a Short-eared Owl flew across the road at the third cattle guard east of highway 385.

Weather today: high temperature reached the middle 60s. Winds were measured at 23-26 mph with gusts to 32. It was windy all day.

Colorado's Walk-In-Areas (fee areas)

Instead of waiting a week for a bird trips to finish and getting reports, I will transcribe telephone reports of current bird trips. Amy Davenport

October 11, 2011

The CoBus group started on a four or five day trip to survey Department of Wildlife "Walk In Areas". These areas are leased from private landowners to the state for hunting. A valid hunting license is required for entry. The properties open up on September 1st and close on October 31st.

Their first stop today was Last Chance Rest Stop where they relocated a White-throated Sparrow and Harris's Sparrow.

Reports from WIA included:
They wanted to emphasize that it takes much walking and helps to have several birders spread across an area to find the secretive birds.

Washington County WIA

At Roads O & 7
Grasshopper Sparrows (2)
Savannah Sparrow (1)
Vesper Sparrows

At CR N & 7
Vesper Sparrows
Say's Phoebe

At CR ZZ & 9
SPRAGUE'S PIPIT

Yuma County Roads several Walk In Areas

At CR D & 5
Not much

At CR M & 1
SPRAGUE'S PIPIT

At CR Y & 4
BAIRD'S SPARROW

At CR 14 & B
GREATER PRAIRIE-CHICKEN
Grasshopper Sparrow

After dark, they hiked from Highway 385 to Foster's Grove, Bonny Reservoir
EASTERN SCREECH-OWL (2)

Weather: fog early, calm winds 4 mph until 1:00 pm when winds picked up to 16 mph until 4:00 pm. Calm at sunset. High temperature was 65 degrees

After Walk at Banner Lakes Wildlife Area, Adams Cty

October 10, 2011

Instead of waiting a week for a bird trips to finish and getting reports, I will transcribe telephone reports of current bird trips. Amy Davenport

Bryan & Sue Ehlmann, Rebecca Kosten and Richard Stevens walked Banner Lakes Wildlife Area during the last three hours of daylight.

Their target birds were uncommon sparrows and owls. Vesper Sparrows were the most common with White-crowned Sparrows coming in second. A few Chipping Sparrows and Song Sparrows were seen along the western windbreak.

Highlight was a Field Sparrow in the northwest corner of the property.

They did find one Long-eared Owl. No Short-eared Owls were seen after sunset.

Birding In Douglas County

October 9, 2011

Sue Ehlmann:

Rebecca Kosten, Rich Stevens, Bryan and I decided to search for the Red-headed, Lewis's and Three-toed Woodpeckers near Cheesman Reservoir. We walked from the Cheesman Canyon Trailhead to the green trailer to the west; no woodpeckers. An adult and 1st year Green-tailed Towhee and a late Wilson's Warbler were in the willows south of the road.

Richard and Bryan hiked up the Cheesman Canyon Trail and found two Three-toed Woodpeckers while Rebecca and I wandered around. Once again, the Red-headed and Lewis's Woodpeckers eluded us.

We stopped half a dozen times along Sugar Creek Road. No Pygmy Owls were seen. We didn't want to stay around until dusk, so gave up on them.

Three Townsend's Solitaires and a small flock of Cedar Waxwings were at the Sedalia Cemetery.

Barr Lake State Park

October 8, 2011

Richard Stevens, Jerry Petrosky and I went to Barr Lake State Park after the rain slackened in the afternoon. What a day, rained most of the day and temperatures stayed around 39 degrees.

We did not come across as many sparrows as Richard found yesterday. Rain did not assist our birding.

The Field Sparrow was seen in the canal with a dozen White crowned Sparrows. The sparrows remained close to the bottom of the canal and moved back and forth at 30-40 yards southwest of the Visitor's Center.

The Harris's Sparrow was never found. It was too wet to hike out to the north end of the banding area spit. We also figured that the Duckweed where the Winter Wren was found yesterday was too wet to search for the wren.

Little was found at the banding area. A Hermit Thrush was under Russian Olive Trees at mile 6.8, which is below the dam.