Crow Valley Campground on Wednesday 8Aug2018 (Weld)
DAVID A LEATHERMAN
This is mostly a note about the condition of Crow Valley Campground. I was told this area has had two hail storms in the last 10 days, the most recent being day before yesterday. The sum of these storms has knocked a lot of leaves off trees, put Russian-olive fruits on the ground, shredded leaves, caused local flash flooding that has the ground vegetation flattened and leaning the same direction, filled little pools in Crow Creek and killed a lot of insects. Today the place felt like a place in shock. Everything was quiet except for a barking dog in one of the campsites and the blower the host seemed compelled to use to clean off sidewalks nobody ever walks on near the outhouse and donation post.
I think the loss of insects (elm leaf beetle larvae on elms, dragonflies, flies, wasps, for ex.) will affect migrating birds that visit the area. My guess is they won't stay as long.
Birding today was so-so, not great. I had at least 4 Olive-sided Flycatchers, several Western Wood-Pewees, 1 Orchard Oriole, 1 Bullock's Oriole, 1 Gray Catbird, 2 Brown Thrashers, at least 3 families of House Wrens, at least 5 Common Nighthawks, a few Yellow Warblers and an eastern race Hairy Woodpecker. I also had 2 Loggerhead Shrike fledglings picking at a dead Horned Lark on the ground wedged into willow stems in the creek bed out north. Total of 30 species. I had no vireos, no empids, no thrushes, no migrant warblers.
Coolest thing was a rather large (2 feet long) Western Hognose Snake doing all his tricks to look ominous but that allowed itself to be picked up without struggle. I moved him a short distance out of the road to a pile of boards in the antique farm machinery area.
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15 miles or so to the north at A&B #1 Res on CR124 a few miles w of CR77 were 2 Marbled Godwits, 4 Least Sandpipers, two Solitary Sandpipers, 1 Spotted Sandpiper, a few avocets, several yellowlegs of both species.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
