ESTESBOG

The week spanning the first of May is a special time for birders in Northeast Colorado. A few winter species are still lingering and a lot of migratory birds are just arriving. In the past week I’ve been to Denver (75 miles southwest of Fort Morgan) and back, Wray (100 miles straight east of Fort Morgan on the Nebraska border) and back, on a <2 mile walk on Brush State Wildlife Area, and on a drive up through Wildcat Canyon just north and northwest of Fort Morgan. My week list of birds follows:

 

Western grebe

American white pelican

Double-crested cormorant

Great blue heron

Canada goose

Mallard

Gadwall

American wigeon

Northern shoveler

Cinnamon teal

Blue-winged teal

Green-winged teal

Redhead

Lesser scaup

Ruddy duck

Turkey vulture

Northern harrier

Swainson’s hawk

Red-tailed hawk

Ferruginous hawk

Osprey

American kestrel

Prairie falcon

Northern bobwhite

Ring-necked pheasant

American coot

Killdeer

American avocet

Spotted sandpiper

Least sandpiper

Ring-billed gull

Franklin’s gull

Mourning dove

Eurasian collared-dove

Rock pigeon

Great horned owl

Red-bellied woodpecker

Downy woodpecker

Northern flicker (red-shafted race)

Say’s phoebe

Western kingbird

Loggerhead shrike

Blue jay

Black-billed magpie

Horned lark

Northern rough-winged swallow

Tree swallow

Cliff swallow

Barn swallow

White-breasted nuthatch

House wren

Marsh wren

Eastern bluebird

American robin

Northern mockingbird

European starling

American pipit

Orange-crowned warbler

Yellow-rumped warbler (Audubon’s race)

Brewer’s sparrow

Chipping sparrow

Vesper sparrow

Lark bunting

Lark sparrow

White-crowned sparrow (West Taiga race)

Song sparrow

Dark-eyed junco (Oregon and red-backed color phases)

Chestnut-collared longspur

Western meadowlark

Brown-headed cowbird

Yellow-headed blackbird

Red-winged blackbird

Brewer’s blackbird

Common grackle

Great-tailed grackle

House finch

American goldfinch

House sparrow

 

Mammals:

 

Thirteen-lined ground squirrel

Black-tailed prairie dog

Fox squirrel

Muskrat

Eastern cottontail

Mink

Coyote

Mule deer

Whitetail deer

Pronghorn