ESTESBOG

CDOW FISHERY BIOLOGIST BEN SWIGLE (CTR) AND SUMMER ASSISTANTS HOIST TWO FRESHWATER DRUM AND TWO HYBRID STRIPED BASS SAMPLED FROM PAWNEE POWER PLANT RESERVOIR IN MORGAN COUNTY, COLORADO. BOTH DRUM PROBABLY EXCEED THE OFFICIAL STATE ANGLING RECORD.

 

It was a great week to be outdoors. It only rained once or twice in Morgan County (a far cry from the previous 10-12 weeks!). My work took me inside the chain-link fences surrounding Pawnee Power Station near Brush to collect virus inspection samples from warm- and coolwater fishes in Pawnee Reservoir. That gave me a look at whatever water birds might be using the 140-acre lake at this time of the year. I found about a dozen western and Clark’s grebes – non-breeders, I presume. Aside from those, there were only white pelicans and double-crested cormorants present.

            I did get an audible on a warbling vireo in the treetops of the cottonwood groves just south of the lake. It is only the first one I’ve come across all year. Can anyone tell me if the decrease is range-wide and why?

            The following day I went into Brush Prairie Ponds State Wildlife Area. This property was hit hard by the sever drought of the past several years. All 36 ponds dried out entirely and the bird life dwindled from dozens of nesting species to about ten. I’m happy to say the waters have returned and all is back to normal.

            BPPSWA is an interesting property. Originally just a clump of loess drifts vegetated by sandsage and bluestem, it lies at the terminus of the Bijou Irrigation Ditch. In good years plenty of water makes it past the user farms upstream and is shunted into the various ponds where it seeps downward to recharge an aquifer that in turn supplies the small City of Brush with high quality soft water.

            At various times in past decades the City of Brush has leased the property for grazing or even irrigated farming. The fragile land is certainly not suitable for farming and plowing up the sand only resulted in denuding and destabilizing the land. In the late 1980s a deal was struck with Ducks Unlimited, the city, and the Colorado Division of Wildlife. DU would lease the property for 25 years and turn over wildlife management on the property (with a few provisos favoring duck hunting) to CDOW.

            Large tracts along the north edge of the 1600-acre property lay nearly free of vegetation and exposed to the wind when CDOW took over. The first move was to plant native grasses, particularly red switchgrass, on the bare sand. The first year was dry and nothing happened. But when moisture arrived in the 2^nd year, the grasses popped up and quickly covered and re-stabilized things. In the following two decades sage and many other native plants have gradually replaced switchgrass and exotic weeds until most of the property appears much as it used to be.

            For years I frequently wandered around the property watching the succession of vegetation and the changes in the ecology that included an ever-increasing bird list and the return of mammalian and reptilian species that had been driven off previously. I got out of the habit of birding BPPSWA during the drought and was pleased by what I saw this past week.

            In addition to the return of large colonies of yellow-headed blackbirds, American bitterns, Cassin’s sparrows, nesting gadwalls, teal, and ruddy ducks, and Virginia rails, there is a new colony of large grebes, both western and Clark’s. The latter is a new species to the property and a new nesting species (in my time) for Morgan County.

            Yesterday (Saturday) Joe Rigli and I hosted a birding outing for the Denver Field Ornithologists Club. Fort Morgan Methodist Church generously loaned us their 11-passenger van for the day. We followed our usual Saturday route through the back country of Wildcat Canyon with frequent stops to set up scopes or check out the flowers close up. We had lunch in Jackson Lake State Park and returned to Fort Morgan to drop off one person who had to leave early. Then I drove the remaining group to BPPSWA where we spent the rest of the afternoon.

            We tallied well over 60 species of birds, several mammals, and several herptiles including one somewhat grumpy rattlesnake. Highlights included a Wilson’s phalarope, a nest of fledgling ferruginous hawks, a western grebe on her nest, a brood of redhead ducklings, six American bitterns, and a snow goose. That’s right; a snow goose! This time of year the closest snow goose should be on the western shore of Hudson Bay with the bulk of the population in the high Arctic. We speculated that perhaps the bird had been injured in the early spring hunt and was forced to stay behind. But that hypothesis lasted only until the bird took off, rising higher and higher and flew northward out of sight. I’d love to know its story. Maybe it will get to James Bay in time to join staging birds for the return flight.

            Here is the day list for the June 20, 2009 outing:

 

 OK, IT’S NOT A GREAT PICTURE. IT’S THE SUBJECT THAT IS KEY THIS TIME. SNOW GEESE JUST SHOULDN’T BE ANYWHERE NEAR THE UNITED STATES THIS TIME OF THE YEAR.

Snow goose

Canada goose

Gadwall

Mallard

Blue-winged teal

Cinnamon teal

Green-winged teal

Redhead

Ruddy duck

Ring-necked pheasant

Wild turkey

Northern bobwhite

Pied-billed grebe

Eared grebe

Clark’s grebe

Western grebe

American white pelican

Double-crested cormorant

American bittern

Great blue heron

Swainson’s hawk

Red-tailed hawk

Ferruginous hawk

Northern harrier

American kestrel

Virginia rail

American coot

Killdeer

Spotted sandpiper

Wilson’s phalarope

California gull

Rock pigeon

Eurasian collared-dove

Mourning dove

Burrowing owl

Common nighthawk

Belted kingfisher

Western wood-pewee

Western kingbird

Eastern kingbird

Loggerhead shrike

Blue jay

Horned lark

Northern rough-winged swallow

Cliff swallow

Barn swallow

American robin

Northern mockingbird

European starling

Yellow warbler

Common yellowthroat

Cassin’s sparrow

Brewer’s sparrow

Lark sparrow

Lark bunting

Grasshopper sparrow

Blue grosbeak

Red-winged blackbird

Yellow-headed blackbird

Western meadowlark

Common grackle

Great-tailed grackle

Brown-headed cowbird

Bullock’s oriole

House sparrow

 

Mammals

Spotted ground squirrel

Black-tailed prairie dog

Eastern cottontail

Black-tailed jackrabbit

Mule deer

 

Herptiles

 

Bullfrog

Woodhouse’s toad

Western rattlesnake

Western painted turtle

 

            To that list I add the following species to round out my personal week list:

 

Turkey vulture

Chimney swift

Northern flicker

Say’s phoebe

Bank swallow

House wren

Brown thrasher

American redstart

Song sparrow

House finch

 

Mammals

 

Fox squirrel

Desert cottontail

Pronghorn

 

Herptiles

 

Lesser earless lizard