More on Chatfield today

[David Suddjian]

I also saw the 2 Semipalmated Plovers at the Platte River delta area. When I saw them they were in the inlet at the SW side of the delta itself. Also present in the delta area were 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 3 Western Sandpipers, 6 Leasts, 1 Pectoral Sandpiper, 1 Red-necked Phalarope, 2 Wilson's Phalaropes, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs, 5 Solitary Sandpipers, 5 Spotteds, 3 Baird's Sandpipers, and a Wilson's Snipe feeding way out in the wide open. Most of the shorebirds were at the north end of the Kingfisher arm, but the Baird's, Pectoral and Red-necked Phalarope were at the Platte inlet, all flying in separately as I was there scoping.

A Hammond's Flycatcher and female Townsend's Warbler were in the riparian between the delta and the Kingfisher parking lot. Also here was an odd White-breasted Nuthatch with extensive brown coloring. The front half of the crown was brown, most of the upper wing surface was brown, and 75% of the upperparts were brown. It was a medium brown and not washed out in tone, as are might be most typical for a leucistic bird, but I suppose that is what it was. A normally-plumaged WBNU was with it, and its calls were normal for the interior form.

The uplands on the Douglas Co. side of the Platte upstream of the perimeter road had a Cassin's Vireo, still one Yellow-breasted Chat, 4 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, 2 Green-tailed Towhees,Olive-sided Flycatcher, Dusky Flycatcher, and a Prairie Falcon chasing a Say's Phoebe (the latter descending safely out of harm's way).

At the Marina sandspit I missed the reported Sanderlings and godwits, but saw 1 Peregrine Falcon that made a half-hearted stoop on a Cooper's Hawk as it flew over the lake, 1 Forster's Tern, 1 Baird's Sandpiper, 1 Sage Thrasher, and a mostly Spizella sparrow flock that had 4 Clay-coloreds and 1 Brewer's with the more numerous Chippings.

David Suddjian

Littleton