Great Horned Owl (c) Jeff Jaacks

Okay, here’s the good news! Breeding season has started! Wahoo!  The probable evidence for this was seen on Saturday as we viewed a cozy pair of Great Horned Owls exhibiting some fondness for one another’s company.  Great Horned Owls can maintain their pair-bond year-round, but these two were perched so close to one another that it felt as though an even greater increased intimacy was in the air.  We also know that copulation has been observed elsewhere in Colorado as early as November (pers. com. Rob Raker), and that incubation can start in January.  December can be a great time to hear dueting males and females – the male, though about 10% smaller than the female, has the deeper hoot (listen below).  So, make sure to step outside on a brisk December night and see if you can hear anything.

Cackling and Canada Geese (c) Bill Schmoker

So, other than owls, we had some great waterbirds.  Cackling Geese, the diminutive cousin of the Canada Goose, were in abundance.  These guys breed in the far northern Arctic and then winter throughout the southern Great Plains, including eastern Colorado. They are very similar to Canada Geese, but distinguished by their smaller size (some hardly bigger than a Mallard), relatively short neck, and stubbier bill.  This is not an easy distinction to make, and I struggle with it yearly.  We, also, had eight duck species, and spent quite a bit of time working on the finer points of duck identification.

Virginia Rail (c) Bill Schmoker

A real highlight was getting to SEE both a Wilson’s Snipe and a pair of Virginia Rail.  Both of these species occur year-round in Colorado, though the rail, in particular, is uncommon in winter.  We saw the Wilson’s Snipe in flight, noting its twisting, zig-zag flight, and very long bill.  Only a few minutes later, we had two Virginia Rail pop out briefly from some dense cattails about eight feet in front of us, and then they were gone in an instant.  A third one was heard in a different spot. Pretty special to see both of these species on the same outing!

Finally, we had a good variety of songbirds.

Hope to see you on another walk soon!
Chuck

Wheat Ridge Greenbelt, Nov 2, 2019
38 species

Cackling Goose  180
Canada Goose  50
Northern Shoveler  32
Gadwall  22
Mallard  35
Green-winged Teal  2
Bufflehead  14
Common Goldeneye  8
Hooded Merganser  24
Ruddy Duck  2
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  6
Virginia Rail  3     
American Coot  14
Wilson’s Snipe  1
Ring-billed Gull  46
Cooper’s Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Great Horned Owl  2
Belted Kingfisher  3
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  7
Blue Jay  6
Black-billed Magpie  11
American Crow  8
Common Raven  2
Black-capped Chickadee  16
White-breasted Nuthatch  3
Brown Creeper  1
European Starling  7
American Robin  2
House Finch  10
American Goldfinch  12
American Tree Sparrow  6
Dark-eyed Junco  1
White-crowned Sparrow  5
Song Sparrow  10
Spotted Towhee  2
Red-winged Blackbird  9

Hooded Merganser (c) Bill Schmoker

Well, I think we can safely say that the eclipse plumage time of the year (when males briefly have a female-type cryptic plumage) is over and that everybody is pretty much set with their fancied-up breeding plumage for next spring.  Also, our winter ducks are starting to really roll in (fly in) now. So, who did we see on Saturday? For starters we had a good number of Gadwall – the male with his black butt and puffy head, and both sexes with the white secondaries making a little white spot on the sides when not in flight.  There were also some great American Wigeons – the male with his white (or creamy) forehead, green swoosh through the eye, black butt, and big white hip patch; the female with her smeared mascara, and both with their warm coloring on their flanks. Mallards were looking glorious – the male with his green head, white collar, brown breast, and black curly tail; the female with her orange bill with a black blob on it; and both with their white tail feathers.  Next there were a few Green-winged Teal – the male with his cinnamon head, green eye swoosh and vertical white bar on his flanks; and both male and female showing some buffy, pale yellow in the tail.  Finally, we had three Hooded Mergansers – the male with his white crest bordered in black, the two vertical black stripes on his upper breast; the female with her frosty-brown punked-out crest; and both with their bright yellow eyes.

Belted Kingfisher – female (c) Bill Schmoker

I urge you newbie birders to get out your field guides and note these characteristics that I’m pointing out, so next time you can tell me what we’re seeing.  And remember that we’ll be focusing a lot on waterfowl through the winter months because we get such a great variety here in the Denver area, including a whole slew of diving ducks, loons, and grebes.

One of our real treats on Saturday was the great look we had of a Belted Kingfisher.  We could tell it was a male, because it had the single dark gray breast-band and had no rufous coloring in the breast or flanks at all. It was noted that a good spotting scope really helps discern the finer points of these incredible birds with their shaggy crest and HUGE bill.

Bushtit – female (c) Bill Schmoker

A real highlight was the good variety of songbirds that we managed to see, a great many of them at the Hudson Gardens feeders and in that vicinity.  I recommend spending some time there sitting on one of the benches and just seeing what might show up.  I think we had thirteen species there.  If you get the chance to see the little gray Bushtits note that the male has dark eyes and the female has yellow eyes.

See you on another walk soon!
Chuck  

Hudson Gardens, Oct 26, 2019
28 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose  3
Gadwall  19
American Wigeon  5
Mallard  42
Green-winged Teal  11
Hooded Merganser  3
Killdeer  1
Ring-billed Gull  2
Double-crested Cormorant  3
Belted Kingfisher  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  5
Black-billed Magpie  9
American Crow  1
Black-capped Chickadee  11
Bushtit  9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  4
European Starling  2
American Robin  5
House Finch  27
American Goldfinch  3
Dark-eyed Junco  1
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)  2
White-crowned Sparrow  2
Spotted Towhee  1
Red-winged Blackbird  25
Yellow-rumped Warbler  1

Meredith McBurney and Wilson’s Warbler (c) Heather Davis

It was a glorious morning at the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies’ banding station at Barr Lake this past Saturday!  The Conservancy has been banding fall migratory birds here for over thirty years, and each year adds additional knowledge to what we know about these birds that pass through Colorado. We hustled out there, so didn’t really look at the few birds noted along the path.  Initially, there was a bit of a breeze blowing, so only a few nets were open, but Meredith McBurney and the banding crew did have a couple of birds they had caught.  Then, in the next half-an-hour or so, the breeze let up, the birds started moving around more, and the action got pretty good.  In fact, it was so good, and Meredith so entertaining in explaining so many aspects of what she does, that we ended up spending almost two-and-a-half hours there.

Wilson’s Warbler (c) Laurel Starr

Birds that we got see in the hand, and that some of us got to briefly hold in our hands, included: a feisty Black-capped Chickadee, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a couple of Dark-eyed Juncos of two subspecies – Oregon and Pink-sided, a couple of White-crowned Sparrows – subspecies “Gambel’s,” a Song Sparrow, a Lincoln’s Sparrow, an Orange-crowned Warbler, several Yellow-rumped Warblers –  all in the “Audubon’s” group, and two Wilson’s Warblers.  Each individual bird got to be looked at and discussed in detail. 

Meredith McBurney at banding station (c) Laurel Starr

For starters, let’s talk about Juncos a little bit (better get your field guides out).  Here in North America we have about fifteen Junco subspecies, some of these more closely related than others.  Seven of these groupings have recognizably different plumages.  One, the Gray-headed Junco, breeds in our mountains each summer.  They, then, stick around through the winter, and six of the other groups, which have bred further north come down to also spend the winters here, and these have just started to arrive in the last couple of weeks.  The two we saw were the Oregon and the Pink-sided.  Note how the Oregon, regardless of whether it’s a male or female does not have black lores (the area between the eye and the bill), while the Pink-sided does have black lores.  This is a really key characteristic because the duller colored individuals of both groups can otherwise look quite similar.

White-crowned Sparrow – juvenile (c) Patrick Blasco

Now, let’s take a quick look at White-crowned Sparrows.  We have two predominant subspecies here in Colorado.  The oriantha ones have black lores and breed up in the highest willow carrs and krummholz – right at timberline.  They then spend winters in the southwest US and northern Mexico. The gambelii ones breed in far northern Alaska and Canada, and many pass through Colorado in the fall on their way to winter in Oklahoma and Texas.  However, we can still have good numbers of both subspecies locally in the winter out on the eastern plains.

Orange-crowned Warbler (c) Doris Huguley

And, a bit on the warblers we saw. The orange crown of the Orange-crowned Warbler is almost never seen in the field.  However, when in the hand, it’s possible to part the feathers on the head of a male and see a small patch of orange – which is exactly what we observed. We had a good variety of Audubon’s Warblers (note that the pale throat patch is confined to the throat and does not wrap around the side of the neck, as in the Myrtle Warbler). The rumps of all the ones we saw were bright yellow – this is the only part of the bird that retains that bright breeding yellow.  The yellow patches on the flanks were quite variable depending on whether we had a male, female, or juvenile.  Our two Wilson’s Warblers were bright yellow males with black caps.

White-crowned Sparrow – juvenile (c) Heather Davis

While doing all our banding station activities we spent almost no time looking at the hundreds of birds out on Barr and its surrounding mudflats.  A few notables though were the 800 or so Western Grebes, one Stilt Sandpiper, five species of gulls – including a couple of Lesser Black-backed Gulls, and a bunch of Double-crested Cormorants and American White Pelicans.

Cassin’s Vireo (c) Heather Davis

Finally, THE BIRD OF THE DAY was one more from the banding station, a Cassin’s Vireo!  These guys breed up in the Pacific Northwest and pass through Colorado when going to and from western Mexico.  They are rare during spring migration, but we do have the opportunity to possibly see a few during fall migration.  Historically, they, the Plumbeous Vireo, and the Blue-headed Vireo were considered to be one species, the Solitary Vireo, but in 1997 they gained recognition as three separate species.  The Plumbeous Vireo is the one that we know best in Colorado as they breed in our lower mountains and western canyons.  These guys have the distinctive “Solitary Vireo” white spectacles and are virtually all gray.  The Cassin’s Vireo, on the other hand, also has the white spectacles, but it has a greenish-gray back and hood with a yellow wash on the flanks, and some yellow in the wings.

A full morning at Barr Lake will keep our heads spinning for a while.  Hope to see you on another walk soon!

Chuck

Barr Lake SP, Oct 5, 2019
36 species (+5 other taxa)

Canada Goose  68
Western Grebe  500
Western/Clark’s Grebe  300
Eurasian Collared-Dove  1
American Coot  6
Killdeer  44
Stilt Sandpiper  1
Franklin’s Gull  3
Ring-billed Gull  100
California Gull  60  
Herring Gull  3
Lesser Black-backed Gull  1     

gull sp.  500
Double-crested Cormorant  300
American White Pelican  200
Great Blue Heron  8
Bald Eagle  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  2
Cassin’s Vireo  1   
Blue Jay  7
Black-billed Magpie  1
Black-capped Chickadee  3
Barn Swallow  180
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  1
European Starling  6
American Robin  1
House Sparrow  30
House Finch  1
Dark-eyed Junco  5
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)  1
Dark-eyed Junco (Pink-sided)  1
White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel’s)  2
Song Sparrow  1
Lincoln’s Sparrow  1
Orange-crowned Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  7
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s)  7
Wilson’s Warbler  2

Brewer’s Sparrow (c) Rob Raker

Harriman Lake always seems to have something to offer!  Saturday the focus was on migrant birds.  To talk about our first bird we need to start by learning a bit about four species of little sparrows that belong to the genus Spizella.  We have about thirty species of sparrows (AKA Little Brown Jobs) that can show up in Colorado.  Among these are the Spizellas, which includes Field Sparrows, Brewer’s Sparrows, Clay-colored Sparrows, and Chipping Sparrows.  American Tree Sparrows used to belong to this group, but they have recently been moved to their own monotypic genus.  Of the other four species we can ignore Field Sparrow as it only occurs rarely in far eastern Colorado.  So, that leaves us with three species. 

Brewer’s Sparrow (c) Rob Raker

Two of these, Brewer’s and Chipping Sparrow, breed in Colorado, and Clay-colored breeds just a bit farther north.  However, all three species migrate through Colorado, and the fall-plumaged birds can be particularly challenging.  I won’t dwell on this too much further, as this is a tough area even for advanced birders. For now, just know that we saw some Brewer’s Sparrows on Saturday, and we identified them as such because of their small size (smallest NA sparrow), long tail, small bill, COMPLETE WHITE EYE-RING, and STREAKED NAPE.  I encourage you to take a quick look at these birds in your field-guide and begin to challenge yourself with this tough realm of sparrow identification.

American Wigeon – female (c) Bill Schmoker

Moving on to the ducks.  Our summer ducks in the Denver area are primarily Mallards, the three teal species, and an occasional Wood Duck.  As we move into fall we start picking up migrants as well as other ducks that may over-winter here, eventually having about twenty duck species in the area.  On Saturday we saw evidence of this as we found Gadwall, American Wigeon, Redhead, Ring-necked Duck, and Ruddy Duck. We are also right in the midst of fall shorebird migration, and we can get up to about thirty-five species passing through Colorado. On Saturday we got great looks at one shorebird, a Spotted Sandpiper. 

Pied-billed Grebe – juvenile (c) Rick Leinen

Also, of interest is the ongoing high numbers we had for Pied-billed Grebes and American Coots, as well as the number of juvenile birds we saw for both species.  Adult Pied-billed Grebes are notable for their white bill with a black band, and juveniles have a strikingly striped head. Adult American Coots are very dark, slate-gray (almost black) with white bills.  Juveniles are a dull light gray with a gray bill.  These guys will both be around through the winter, but their numbers will be dropping by the beginning of November as some of them retreat south.

Finally, Great Horned Owls nested once again at Harriman, and we got to see one ensconced among some dense cottonwood branches.

Hope to see you on our next walk!
Chuck

Harriman Lake, Sep 7, 2019
28 species (+1 other taxa)

Spotted Sandpiper (c) Rick Leinen

Gadwall  18
American Wigeon  2
Mallard  23
Redhead  7
Ring-necked Duck  1
Ruddy Duck  2
Pied-billed Grebe  17
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  2
Mourning Dove  5
Broad-tailed Hummingbird  1
hummingbird sp.  1
American Coot  31
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Double-crested Cormorant  4
Great Blue Heron  1
Turkey Vulture  1
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Great Horned Owl  1
Northern Flicker  4
American Kestrel  1
Blue Jay  2
American Crow  3
Barn Swallow  4
House Wren  1
European Starling  1
House Finch  6
Brewer’s Sparrow  3
Lark Sparrow  1
Red-winged Blackbird  17

Back-caped Chickadee (c) Bill Schmoker

Saturday was the day of the Black-capped Chickadees.  As we left the welcome center we immediately were surrounded by a little group consistently calling to one another.  Now that breeding season is pretty much over with just a few ragtag juvenile birds still harassing their parents for a hand-out (or beak-out), the time for singing is pretty much past.  We only heard the distinctive, pure two-note whistled “feebee” a couple of times.  Mostly we heard the “chickadee-dee-dee” calls or abbreviated variations.  There is one additional call that Black-capped Chickadees make which I wanted to call to your attention, and we heard it a lot on Saturday.  It’s a relatively quiet contact call that the chickadees use to stay in touch with one another.

One other cool bird that showed up with the chickadees was a Red-breasted Nuthatch.  These guys are primarily found in coniferous forests up in the mountains, but in the fall and winter a few will move down into the conifers that have been planted in parks and residential areas.  It was singing consistently doing its rather monotonous “red-red-red-red” series (both recordings (c) xeno-canto.org).

Wood Duck – juvenile male (c) Bill Schmoker

Once again, this summer Wood Ducks successfully fledged young on the pond immediately below the welcome center, and we were able to get good looks at six juveniles, all of whom were apparently males.  We’re right on that cusp when juvenile Wood Ducks are starting to take on some of the plumage attributes of adult birds, and all of our birds had the beginnings of the bright white “bridle” so distinctive in the males – finger-like extensions from the white throat on to the cheek and neck.  However, our birds also had bright white rings around their eyes, an attribute of their appearance as youngsters.

Snowy Egret (c) Bill Schmoker

Moving on down to the South Platte we saw scores of Mallards.  The males were all clearly still in eclipse plumage – that time of year when male plumage is very like female – and the only way to tell who were the boys and who were the girls was to look at the bill color – males = yellow-green and females = orange with black splotchiness.  The only other duck we saw was a single female Gadwall.  A reminder to you all, that as fall migration really gets cranking we could see over ten species of ducks on one of our Hudson hikes, and some of our Front Range Birding Walks on the first Saturday of each month will target areas where we could get over fifteen species.

Black-crowned Night-Heron (c) Bill Schmoker

Finally, shorebird migration through eastern Colorado is at its peak right now, with over twenty species generally recorded each year.  We were fortunate on Saturday to see a Spotted Sandpiper (white in front of the wing, and with an obvious bobbing motion) and a Solitary Sandpiper (white “spectacles,” and relatively dark back).

Good Birding!
Chuck

Hudson Gardens, Aug 31, 2019
28 species

Canada Goose  13
Wood Duck  6
Gadwall  1
Mallard  48
Rock Pigeon  2
Broad-tailed Hummingbird  1
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Solitary Sandpiper  1
Ring-billed Gull  53
Great Blue Heron  1
Snowy Egret  2
Black-crowned Night-Heron  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Belted Kingfisher  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  5
Blue Jay  1
Black-billed Magpie  1
American Crow  3
Black-capped Chickadee  24
Barn Swallow  2
Red-breasted Nuthatch  1
White-breasted Nuthatch  1
House Wren  3
American Robin  2
House Finch  20
American Goldfinch  7
Yellow Warbler  1