ESTESBOG

 

 

ANOTHER WEEK OF BIRDING IN MORGAN COUNTY, COLORADO – MAY 10-16, 2009

 

And just like that, the spring migration through Morgan County has peaked. Last week most of the trees were in flower or had tiny leaves just beginning to open. This week the leaves are half-sized and growing every day. The little birds in the treetops are less visible, but the bulk of them have already moved through.

 

I did not get out as much this past week as I did the week before. But yesterday Joe Rigli and I made a trip down through Wildcat Canyon and over to the vicinity of Jackson Lake. We hit a pocket of warblers in a grove of cottonwoods down in the canyon that held a mother lode of birds and filled out our spring warbler lists nicely including a couple of fairly unusual ones for these parts.

 

All in all it was a very cool spring and the migration less spectacular than average. But the year is young and there is much more to come.

 

Here is my list for the week. Next week: San Diego!

 

Pied-billed grebe

Western grebe

American white pelican

Double-crested cormorant

Great blue heron

Canada goose

Wood duck

Mallard

Cinnamon teal

Blur-winged teal

Redhead

Ruddy duck

Northern harrier

Swainson’s hawk

Red-tailed hawk

Ferruginous hawk

American kestrel

Northern bobwhite

Ring-necked pheasant

Wild turkey (Rio Grande race)

American coot

Sora

Killdeer

Willet

Spotted sandpiper

Ring-billed gull

Mourning dove

Eurasian collared-dove

Rock pigeon

Great horned owl

Chimney swift

Belted kingfisher

Red-headed woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

Northern flicker

Say’s phoebe

Eastern kingbird

Cassin’s kingbird

Western kingbird

Loggerhead shrike

Blue jay

Black-billed magpie

Horned lark

Northern rough-winged swallow

Cliff swallow

Barn swallow

House wren

Rock wren

Ruby-crowned kinglet

American robin

Swainson’s thrush

Hermit thrush

Northern mockingbird

Brown thrasher

European starling

Northern parula

Orange-crowned warbler

Tennessee warbler

Yellow warbler

Magnolia warbler

Yellow-rumped warbler

Townsend’s warbler

Blackpoll warbler

MacGillivray’s warbler

Common yellowthroat

Wilson’s warbler

Blue grosbeak

Spotted towhee

Cassin’s sparrow

Brewer’s sparrow

Clay-colored sparrow

Chipping sparrow

Vesper sparrow

Lark bunting

Lark sparrow

White-crowned sparrow

Western meadowlark

Brown-headed cowbird

Yellow-headed blackbird

Red-winged blackbird

Common grackle

Great-tailed grackle

Bullock’s oriole

House finch

Pine siskin

American goldfinch

House sparrow

 

Mammals:

fox squirrel

black-tailed prairie dog

eastern cottontail

desert cottontail

Virginia opossum