Denver County: White-throated Sparrow, Pileated Woodpecker, etc.

[Ted Floyd]

Hello, birders.

Andrew Floyd and I were guests of a Colorado State University Ornithology Club field trip today, Sat., Nov. 14, to Denver County. We started out in City Park, which had good numbers and diversity of wintering gulls, geese, and ducks. Highlights were a wood duck and one of the long-present graylag geese. Also a ridiculously cooperative Cooper hawk, a nelsoni ("Rocky Mountains") white-breasted nuthatch, and a loud brown creeper.

On the grounds of the nearby Denver Zoo, we heard and saw a white-throated sparrow, a big ole flock of bushtits (remember when they were actually notable as far north and east as Denver?), a couple ruby-crowned kinglets, the regular wintertime flock of common grackles, and another brown creeper. 

And the usual suspects: pileated woodpecker, Indian peafowl, Egyptian plover, cinereous vulture, Abyssian ground hornbill . . .

Great day: nice birds, fine weather, splendid company, paradise tanagers flitting about, and Nicobar pigeons walking around at our feet--not much to complain about!

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County