Easter birding around Lafayette, Boulder County

[Ted Floyd]

Hey, everybody. And Happy Easter!

Okay, so we'll start this off at Walmart, Lafayette, Boulder County, Apr. 4, 2021. As you may have heard, #WalmartIsTheNewChico. Sure enough, these resourceful rock pigeons were nesting in holes on the side of the building:



Can you say: #PVCPipingIsTheNewDoveCotes -?

The common ravens were at their predator-protected nest at the Walmart this morning (but who would mess with a raven on a nest, I sure wouldn't):



And check THIS out:



I know many of you saw the CFO presentation a week ago on the plastic owls of Walmart. Well, this real great horned owl was watching the photographer the whole time he was photographing all those plastic owls. And he never knew it. A nine-year-old birder in the audience went to the Walmart the next day and discovered the owls. And they were there this morning. A Walmart twitch. Srsly.

Also nesting at the Walmart this morning:



That's a black-billed magpie standing guard over its nest. Magpies are right up there on the oversized-nests leaderboard. So are American bushtits. They're breeding all over Lafayette. Here's one such undertaking, at Greenlee Preserve earlier today:

All that stuff in the middle is the nest. The micro-bird at the upper right of the nest is the male about to enter the structure.

Toward the other end of the nest-building spectrum were these minimalist great blue herons at Hecla Pond this afternoon;



They've evicted the Canada geese from their platform. To which the geese say, yeah, well, we'll do it the easy way:



What can I say?--the Canada Geese were getting in on the Easter egg hunt scene. A quick digression, by the way: Early this morning, I saw a little girl "win" the grand prize in an Easter egg hunt. The thing was easily larger than a regulation-size, non-deflated NFL football, and it glittered gold. The golden egg was so big the little girl couldn't fit it in her Easter basket, so she sadly put it back into hiding. I thought about encouraging her to simply carry the thing off, but birding beckoned, so...

Also, some non-birding for me earlier today. Here's Peter Rabbit and pal, doing the woof-woof testosterone thing at the Walmart:



Carrying on with the theme of wildlife in a family way, the black-tailed prairie-dog colony at the Walmart is completely out of control. Fine with me. Here's one of them, a chonky boy:

We saw insects on the "Lafayette Birds!" outing. Like this excellent conchuela bug, Chlorochroa ligata, near Waneka Lake:



The wild geranium, Erodium cicutarium, is blooming everywhere now. Just look down. Here's one from a few hours ago in residential Lafayette:



And turtles! Here's a mixed-species flock (western painted turtles, red-eared sliders) at Greenlee marsh earlier today:



Have a great week, everybody!

Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder County