Local birds, Lafayette, Boulder County, Aug. 12

[Ted Floyd]

Hey, all.

Jared and David have posted some local observations. Here are mine.

Early, very early, this Saturday morning, Aug. 12, I heard a few lark sparrows migrating over Lafayette, Boulder County. It was hazy with a north wind. I didn't see any Perseids, and I didn't hear any chipping sparrows. A cool sighting was a very alert night-roosting Cooper hawk. We're getting on toward "high season" for singing orthopterans, and, whilst I was listening to the sparrows on nocturnal migration, I heard Carolina ground crickets, Allard ground crickets, snowy tree crickets, fall field crickets, and a greater angle-wing katydid.

Yesterday, Friday, Aug. 11, Andrew Floyd and I saw a loggerhead shrike near Prince Lake No. 2, eastern Boulder County.

And even though it's still summer, it's also next spring already for the courting great horned owls, both sexes of which have been vocal the past couple mornings here in Lafayette.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County