Wandering Bobwhite at Ken Caryl area, JeffCo

[David Suddjian]

This is sort of trivial, as I presume this report "just" pertains to an escaped Northern Bobwhite, but I think it is interesting, and fun because the bird is calling.  On June 22 I had a DFO field trip that met initially at South Valley Park's North Trailhead. As we were doing our round of introductions at 5:45 am a Nor. Bobwhite began to call for several minutes from a point in the distance south of the parking lot. I'd never had or heard of a bobwhite in the Littleton region, so it was a surprise. We drove over to where it was calling from but it had stopped. I added it to the checklist then, taking advantage of eBird functionality with non-established exotics. 

Now today, at 4:48 am, still more dark than light, one began to call near my Ken Caryl Valley home. It called about 5 times. My home is 1.5 miles from the South Valley Park location, as the bobwhite walks. I'm betting $20 it is the same individual and it has walked over my way. 

A number of years ago a Chukar appeared in my yard for a few days, and then a handful of days after one was reported near Morrison. This is another situation where the species is normally not present at all in this area, and I believed that chukar had walked from my yard north through the hogback area for about 5 miles to this other location.

These birds are good walkers.

David Suddjian

Ken Caryl Valley

Littleton, CO