Piping Plover at Smith Reservoir and Results of Big Day San Luis Valley

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A team of five of us did a full day of birding for our annual Big Day event in the San Luis Valley on May 17th. The team consisted of Lisa Gail, Lisa Rawinski, Jake Myers, Randy Ghormley and myself and we hoped to break the record of 153 species. We began at the Monte Vista Refuge and immediately got lucky to find a Palm Warbler, one of few records for our area. In the mountains we found Lewis’s Woodpecker, Golden Eagle, and MacGillivray’s Warbler, but were missing many of the “should gets”.

On to Smith reservoir where we were surprised to find the first SLV First Record of Piping Plover. Upon later review of eBird, we saw that Mark Peterson and another had seen it a day earlier, but we found it independent of that info. It was very exciting for sure. The reservoir also produced Blue Grosbeak and Clay-colored Sparrow, 13 Stilt Sandpipers and an estimated 400 Black Terns.

When the day grew long, we called it good. Our day list stood at 130 species and we all felt elated over the fantastic birds we had seen.

 

John Rawinski

Monte Vista, CO