Flycatchers - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

I took a brief walk along the High Line Canal Trail near the High Line Canal Conservancy office in Greenwood Village / Centennial. A Western Flycatcher is along the Little Dry Creek. I first encountered them breeding along the Little Dry Creek in 2018, but I didn't bird this area much before then. They've seemed to grow in numbers along the Creek and Canal Trail since then. An Eastern Phoebe continued along the Canal, singing a bit from a moderately high perch. However, he flew off (much higher) into a surrounding neighborhood, in the general direction of Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens. I'm not sure what the status of the pair I saw there earlier in spring is.

For those into flowers: Textile Onions, Western Spiderworts, Wholeleaf Paintbrush, and Scarlet Globemallow are looking pretty. Prairie False Dandelions are going to seed. 

Unrelated: I just returned from a trip to the Ozarks in Missouri to observe Whip-poor-will research and hear the species. Unreal what they sound like when they're so common--it seemed as if every spot had 2-4 singing. I'll blog about this sometime soon, for those interested, and I'll post some recordings. Plus a lifer Kentucky Warbler (the only warbler who I actually saw through the leaves). And cicadas and butterflies galore!

Oh, waiting on my first of the year in Colorado Common Nighthawk. Any dusk now. (Heard one in MO.)

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

lonesomewhippoorwill.com