ESTESBOG

 

A week ago I was tied to my desk all week. This week I spent four days at least in part in the field. Although none of that time was devoted specifically to birding, it did yield a good-sized list of “incidentals.”

            Monday afternoon and early evening I rode with District Wildlife Manager (translation: Colorado game warden) Todd Cozad of Fort Morgan. His duties took him south into an oilfield in Washington County, then northeastward to Jackson Lake State Park to assist two young field technicians from my program, Ellen Hayes and Brian Heinold, as they took samples in their search for invasive zebra and quagga mussels.

            Wednesday and Thursday I made the 350-miles trip to Montrose and back. My route took me right through the heart of Colorado over several mountain passes. The snow in the high country is now patchy on north-facing slopes beginning at 8,000 feet. The runoff is past peak now. Aspen leaves have at least started to open all the way to 10,000 feet.

            Friday I made another run from Brush out to Jackson Lake (northwest corner of Morgan County) and back. The series of ponds just southwest of the state park gate were the star wildlife properties as usual. Many species nest there but are seldom seen during breeding season elsewhere in the region. There are always many pairs of ruddy ducks and redheads. This year a pair of western grebes is nesting within full view of a county road. Whether these comprise the edge of a colony has yet to be determined. Those ponds also hold a loose colony of nesting American bitterns.

            Here is my week’s list, both prairie and montane:

 

BIRDS:

Canada goose

Mallard

Blue-winged teal

Cinnamon teal

Redhead

Ring-necked duck

Lesser scaup

Common merganser

Ruddy duck

Ring-necked pheasant

Wild turkey

Northern bobwhite

Pied-billed grebe

Western grebe

American white pelican

Double-crested cormorant

 

American bittern

Great blue heron

Black-crowned night-heron

Turkey vulture

Bald eagle

Cooper’s hawk

Swainson’s hawk

Red-tailed hawk

Ferruginous hawk

American kestrel

American coot

 

Killdeer

Solitary sandpiper

Upland sandpiper

Wilson’s snipe

California gull

Ring-billed gull

 

Forster’s tern

Rock pigeon

Eurasian collared-dove

Mourning dove

Burrowing owl

Common nighthawk

Chimney swift

Broad-tailed hummingbird

Red-headed woodpecker

Williamson’s sapsucker

Downy woodpecker

Hairy woodpecker

Northern flicker

Western wood-pewee

Willow flycatcher

Say’s phoebe

Western kingbird

Eastern kingbird

Loggerhead shrike

Blue jay

Black-billed magpie

American crow

Common raven

Horned lark

Tree swallow

Violet-green swallow

Northern rough-winged swallow

Cliff swallow

Barn swallow

Rock wren

Bewick’s wren

House wren

Western bluebird

Mountain bluebird

Townsend’s solitaire

Swainson’s thrush

American robin

Northern mockingbird

Brown thrasher

European starling

Cedar waxwing

Yellow warbler

Common yellowthroat

Wilson’s warbler

Vesper sparrow

Lark sparrow

Lark bunting

Song sparrow

Red-winged blackbird

Yellow-headed blackbird

Western meadowlark

Brewer’s blackbird

Common grackle

Great-tailed grackle

Brown-headed cowbird

Orchard oriole

Bullock’s oriole

House finch

House sparrow

 

MAMMALS:

Thirteen-lined ground squirrel

Wyoming ground squirrel

Gunnison’s prairie dog

Black-tailed prairie dog

Desert cottontail

Eastern cottontail

Mule deer

Pronghorn

 

REPTILES:

Six-lined racerunner

Bull snake