Greenlee, Boulder Co., during the rain event, May 9-15

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Ted Floyd

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May 16, 2023, 2:43:27 AM5/16/23
to Colorado Birds
Hey, all.

It started at 11:27pm on Tues., May 9, with a text, which I saw well after the fact, from Hannah Floyd that there was a big, Merlin-corroborated push of Brewer sparrows and clay-colored sparrows migrating over Lafayette, eastern Boulder Co. I'll spare you the family drama, but...Next time, wake me up! I don't care how peacefully I'm slumbering. Hannah's audio is awesome, with stratiform rain, distant thunder, and this bewitching descant of the little tsi notes of spectrographically diagnostic Brewer and clay-colored sparrows. And, sure enough, the next morning, Wed., May 10, they were on the ground at nearby Greenlee Wildlife Preserve.

It's been Brewers and clay-coloreds ever since at the preserve and adjoining Waneka Lake, along with the following, all since May 10: semipalmated plover, long-billed dowitcher, Wilson phalarope, snowy egret, black-crowned night-heron, least flycatcher, gray flycatcher, red-eyed vireo, rock wren, hermit thrush, Swainson thrush, brown thrasher, pine siskin, lesser goldfinch, ovenbird, northern waterthrush, Tennessee warbler, northern parula, and American redstart. Black-chinned hummingbirds, gray catbirds, and bushtits have been continually present throughout the period at and around The Shack. And the osprey show at Waneka has been ridiculous: Four individuals, by plumage, hunt over the lake from sunrise to sunset every day. I can't believe there are any fish left in the lake; and how are the ospreys and their families possibly consuming so much fish??

Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder Co.
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