ESTESBOG

            The plains pricklypear (Opuntia polycantha) is very abundant in northeast Colorado growing in a variety of habitats. Most of the year it is ignored by the general public. But in June each year the plains pricklypear asserts itself by coloring the prairie with an amazing array of ornate blossoms ranging from brilliant yellow to a sort of glowing pink to deep pink. The breathtaking show lasts perhaps three weeks and is followed by dark red fruits around the tips of the pads. Both the fruits and pads are edible but must be singed to remove the spines before they can be handled. Coronado and other early explorers of the Llano Estacado in Texas found little to eat except the pricklypear, the staple diet of Native Americans in the region. Read more…

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? Read more…

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. Read more…

BIRDING LIST – MAY 25-30, 2009

It was a week spent catching up on work. I did not make any trips, just my commutes back and forth through ten miles of irrigated farm land between my house and my lab. Yesterday, however, Joe Rigli and I set out on a morning’s birding north of Fort Morgan, only to be sidetracked for an hour or so by the strange-looking airplane at “FMX” (see following story).

            The prairie in northeast Colorado is lush green due to the cool, very wet spring. This season’s stars so far are patches of a very showy white evening primrose which appear to be patches of snow from a distance and look more like scattered white tissues as you get closer.

Here is my week list:

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TWO STATES AND FOUR BIOMES

            It was a very interesting birding week. I spent the first 4 days here in Colorado and the last three in San Diego. On Wednesday I made a business journey into the ponderosa pine foothills of the Rockies to about 7,500’ elevation in southern Douglas County. Thus my Colorado list for the week contains montane as well as grassland species. On the San Diego trip Nancy and I spent time on or near the harbor but also took a long drive to the east and northeast into inland farm and ranch country. Having been to San Diego twice before, there were fewer possibilities for life birds this time around. Nevertheless I added two species: California towhee and red-crowned parrot.

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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 Read more…

IF YOU MUST SLAP A MOOSE….

by Peter Walker

(photo by David Walker)

Once again I am taking you back to my native state of Maine. I knew a young game warden (for the purposes of this story I’ll call him Danny) when I worked there about 30 years ago who began his outdoor career as a 6-month seasonal state park ranger. After three years as a ranger, he transferred to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

As a ranger Danny was assigned from May through October to Baxter State Park, a very remote 180,000-acre tract of mountains, clear northern lakes, and boreal forest in northern Maine. Baxter State Park is a remarkable natural treasure that was accumulated by a wealthy bachelor governor, Percival Baxter, who bequeathed the property to the people of the State of Maine with the proviso that it remain forever wild. Read more…

SPRING MIGRATION APPROACHES ITS PEAK

How much things change in a week! Last week’s stars were multiple large flocks of Brewer’s and yellow-headed blackbirds. Yesterday it was big flocks of lark buntings and Spizella sparrows – chipping, Brewer’s and clay-colored. Joe Rigli and I saw one flock of buntings that numbered at least 250 and a mixed Spizella flock at least as large. The warbler migration still hasn’t peaked, but there are new species arriving every day. We saw our first blue grosbeak and our first woodland thrushes, looking very out-of-place in local sparse riparian habitats. Near Narrow’s Bridge yesterday we found two blue-gray gnatcatchers zipping around in the tangled twigs of a peachleaf willow. It’s a very uncommon species in these parts, but this is the third year in a row we’ve seen them.

 Another good sighting was a nearly simultaneous observation by Bruce Bosley of four cattle egrets in Washington County and two more by me in Weld County just after talking with Bruce by cell phone. Cattle egrets have retracted in range and have been nearly absent from this region for several years.

Read more…

Monday morning I had a doctor’s appointment in Greeley at 0800. Afterwards I headed to Brush to my office. It’s a little over an hour’s drive and, as I often do, I decided to take a “shortcut” on some back roads. My route took me to the eastern Morgan County town of Weldona and from there northward on an uninhabited series of dirt roads to the ridge along the Judson Hills and eastward to the escarpment above Wildcat Canyon. It’s dry, rugged country and usually chock full of birds.

It was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I was driving with the driver’s side window down listening for bird songs on the south slope of the hills when I heard a loud, sweet song. I stopped and backed up until I heard it again. It was a spectacular song, beginning with a slurred whistle followed by a complex series of trills. It was vaguely familiar yet not something I’ve heard very often out here on the northeast Colorado plains.

For a minute or two I was frustrated. I just couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Then I finally spied a pale little face staring out from inside a large, snowplow-damaged sandsage (silvery wormwood) shrub on the banking of the road a few feet away. As I focused the camera on the face, the little bird began to sing again. Wow, what a voice! Read more…

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: Read more…