Greenlee Wildlife Preserve & environs, Boulder Co., Sun., Mar. 27
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Ted Floyd
Mar 28, 2022, 12:15:56 AM3/28/22
to Colorado Birds
Hey, all.
I enjoyed a nice ramble earlier today, Sun., Mar. 27, around Greenlee Wildlife Preserve & environs, Boulder Co., with Alejo Williams Viveros. Highlights included the following: an FOS western grebe lounging on Waneka Lake; killdeer everywhere; 2 greater yellowlegs migrating over Waneka Lake; 5 high-flying Franklin gulls; an adult double-crested cormorant evidently on VisMig; a magnificent female peregrine falcon blazing low over the treetops near Hecla Pond; 5 widely dispersed Say phoebes; a remarkable 6 pairs of bushtits; a tardy American tree sparrow; 2 white-throated sparrows; and about 15 common grackles going over mostly as singles. So there was a nice passage in progress while we were out there. Alejo and I found 48 species during the morning, and I added 4 more on a solo jaunt in the afternoon; I think 50+ species may be a personal best for me this early in the year at the preserve & environs.
Other migrants in the area in recent days: cinnamon teal; horned grebe; sandhill crane; American white pelican; and turkey vulture.
In the what in the name of?? category, Alejo brought to my attention this perverse oddity along Baseline Road directly across from the preserve:
Other migrants in the area in recent days: cinnamon teal; horned grebe; sandhill crane; American white pelican; and turkey vulture.
In the what in the name of?? category, Alejo brought to my attention this perverse oddity along Baseline Road directly across from the preserve:
Here's another look:
Those are some decidedly tall trees, and look how far out the owls are! That effort required some legit arborism. Upon first espying this surreal spectacle, I semi-srsly, albeit very briefly, wondered whether we were looking at Colorado's (and the ABA Area's) first, well, spectacled owls, Pulsatrix perspicillata. In any event, I have been asking myself all day long: What could possibly have possessed someone to have perpetrated such a deed? And if it was to keep real owls away, the effort has been in vain, for directly across Baseline Rd., these guys are doing just fine:
A final thought. The second-calendar-year (first-winter) Zonotrichia sparrows, both White-throated and White-crowned sparrows, at the preserve feeders are in the process right now of rapidly molting out of their formative plumage, and they are striking to behold, wondrous mosaics of two different feather generations, as here:
Those are some decidedly tall trees, and look how far out the owls are! That effort required some legit arborism. Upon first espying this surreal spectacle, I semi-srsly, albeit very briefly, wondered whether we were looking at Colorado's (and the ABA Area's) first, well, spectacled owls, Pulsatrix perspicillata. In any event, I have been asking myself all day long: What could possibly have possessed someone to have perpetrated such a deed? And if it was to keep real owls away, the effort has been in vain, for directly across Baseline Rd., these guys are doing just fine:
A final thought. The second-calendar-year (first-winter) Zonotrichia sparrows, both White-throated and White-crowned sparrows, at the preserve feeders are in the process right now of rapidly molting out of their formative plumage, and they are striking to behold, wondrous mosaics of two different feather generations, as here:
Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder County
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