help on vireo ID (song), St Vrain Bridge, Hygiene (Boulder Cnty)

[Linda Andes-Georges]

Hi folks--

I almost forgot to ask you this, and now it may be too late.

After doing a birdcount in a closed property on Thursday morning, I stopped by the bridge on N. 61st/63rd St north of Hygiene Rd (the place where people often get the odd species like Winter Wren or Red-eyed Vireo, etc).

I heard a song I had heard earlier in the spring (June) on the nearby closed property: it sounds to me like a Philadelphia Vireo. It could be a mellow Red-eyed, but since it is a bit unique, I thought I'd see if anyone else can go have a listen and let me know what you think.

I'm as certain as I am capable of being (concerning birds) that it is a vireo spuh. It sings very short phrases with a 1 sec. pause between them (unlike Red-eyed, which kinda has a motor-mouth). It says, "See me? Pretty me? Dios mio!" and keeps on going with that type of intonation. Not annoying enough for a Warbling, not hoarsely dreamy enough for a Solitary (nor is it the right habitat).

Whatever it is is breeding there: it's song was being echoed phrase by phrase by a bird further up the creek. Unless someone was doing a playback joke on me...

Thanks for any comments--

Linda Andes-Georges
central Boulder Cnty

[Ted Floyd]

Hi, Linda & all. There have been at least three Red-eyed Vireos there this summer:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topicsearchin/cobirds/author$3Ame/cobirds/IqD83AkdzZA

I don't agree that the bird or birds necessarily are breeding there. They might be. But the presence of singing Red-eyed Vireos doesn't necessarily confirm breeding. It was Christian Nunes, I believe, who made an analogous point with regard to the amazing Baird's Sparrows of Larimer County--although with the Baird's Sparrows, the evidence, while admittedly still circumstantial, is quite tantalizing.

While I have y'all's attention, I'll mention that there's at least one--and probably only one, haha--spot in Boulder County with shorebird habitat. On a tip from one of my invisible companions on the Aug. 13 Perseids trip, I went down to Stearns Lake, barely Boulder County, the morning of Friday, Aug. 14, where I found:

4 Snowy Egrets

1 Bald Eagle

1 Virginia Rail

14 Killdeer

8 Spotted Sandpipers

1 Solitary Sandpiper

2 Least Sandpipers

1 Wilson's Snipe

Chipping, Brewer's, Lark, Vesper, Savannah, and Song Sparrows, plus Lark Bunting

2 Great-tailed Grackles

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County