South-central Colorado, Mar. 12– 17, 2024
Ted Floyd
1. Lathrop State Park, Huerfano Co., Tues., Mar. 12. Breezy and warm and kinda slow birdwise, with 4 Woodhouse scrub-jays, 2 juniper titmouses, 2 American bushtits, 2 Bewick wrens, 1 curve-billed thrasher, and the first of the many hundreds, perhaps 1,000+, mountain bluebirds that we would see during our expedition. Also a nice showing by green claybank tiger beetles, Cicindela denverensis; we succeeded in audio-recording their sonations!—a first for us, for sure, and perhaps for anyone.
2. Great Sand Dunes National Park, Alamosa Co., Tues., Mar. 12. Arriving there at sundown and climbing the dunes during a sandstorm was memorable—but also unconducive to birding. We saw and heard nothing!
4. Smith Reservoir State Wildlife Area [FEE, PERMIT], Costilla Co., Wed., Mar. 13. In rain, sleet, graupel, and then snow flurries, large numbers and a good diversity of ducks, including 100+ northern pintails, 150+ common mergansers, and 1 red-breasted merganser; 3,500+ sandhill cranes; 1 Wilson snipe; and 2 merlins.
5. Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, Rio Grande Co. On Thurs., Mar. 14, in on-and-off snow squalls and then a steadier snow, 4 cinnamon teal, 40+ ruddy ducks, and 2 more merlins. On Sat., Mar. 16, in bright sunshine and then heavy graupel, an amazing anserine showing, with 13 snow geese, 4 greater white-fronted geese, 4,500 cackling geese (their numbers at the refuge have gone off the charts in recent years), a few "lesser" Canada geese still hanging on, 2 Anser x Branta hybrids, and, just off the refuge, 5 domestic swan ("Chinese") geese; bald eagles at a nest; and 4 marsh wrens.
6. Home Lake, Rio Grande Co., Fri., Mar. 15. In bright sunshine, 125+ gadwalls; early shorebirds including 1 female American avocet and 6 greater yellowlegses; 5 American white pelicans; and wonderful viewing of a pair of muskrats, Ondatra zibethicus.
8. Zapata Ranch [PRIVATE], Alamosa Co., Sat., Mar. 16. Under cloudy skies, 2 marvelous singing long-eared owls, including one in a nearby juniper; 5 great horned owls; 40+ pinyon jays; surprisingly, two pairs of nest-excavating pygmy nuthatches (the habitat here does not seem suitable for them); and our only western bluebird of the trip amid several mountain bluebirds.
12. Como, Park Co., Sun., Mar. 17. In off-and-on overcast and sunshine, with bright glare in the deep snow, 3 Hepburn rosy-finches, 2 nominate (tephrocotis) gray-crowned rosy-finches, 1 brown-capped rosy-finch, and 1 pine siskin.
Ted Floyd
Matt Webb
Matthew M Webb
Senior Avian Ecologist and Motus Wildlife Tracking System Coordinator
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
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Ted Floyd
Ted,Thanks for the interesting report! Did you post the beetle recording to iNaturalist? Can you share a link if you did? I’d like to give it a listen!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/202235650
First iNat upload of audio for any species in the family Cicindelidae...ever!
Thanks for asking! Best, —Ted
Matt Webb
Matthew M Webb
Senior Avian Ecologist and Motus Wildlife Tracking System Coordinator
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 7:18 AM Matt Webb <matt...@birdconservancy.org> wrote:
Ted,Thanks for the interesting report! Did you post the beetle recording to iNaturalist? Can you share a link if you did? I’d like to give it a listen!This might be a bit before your time, Matt . . .
First iNat upload of audio for any species in the family Cicindelidae...ever!
Thanks for asking! Best, —Ted
Matt
Matthew M Webb
Senior Avian Ecologist and Motus Wildlife Tracking System Coordinator
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
970.482.1707 x36 (office)
970.405.7155 (mobile - use this number!)
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Ted Floyd
https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/cobirds/c/oqCyicSjiHc/m/S8EvX70veekJ
Literally, from the COBirds archives.
(No sandstorms and snow devils for that 2007 expedition, but how 'bout the incident with the car and the flame-thrower!)
—Ted Floyd, Lafayette, Boulder Co.
DAVID A LEATHERMAN
Matt, Ted, et al,
Here is a pic Janeal Thompson took on her Lamar kitchen counter of copulating Green Claybank Tiger Beetles. I caught these during our 24 February 2024 visit to Carrizo Creek Picnic Area. After the photo shoot, which might have involved some sensual sound we overlooked, the beetles were released in Lamar which is also part of their natural range. The pic reminds me of a line in an “Eagles” song that says something like, “If you find somebody to love in this world, you better hang on tooth and nail.” Amen.
Just to make this legit for COBIRDS, our best birds at Carrizo Creek were a loudly singing Bewick’s Wren, Canyon Towhees and one of Colorado’s most interesting birds, a Loggerhead Shrike.
True legacies don’t involve leaving a four-car garage to your kids to pay estate taxes on. IMO, it’s things like a first tiger beetle recording. Kudos, Ted.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins
From: cob...@googlegroups.com <cob...@googlegroups.com>
On Behalf Of Matt Webb
Sent: Monday, March 18, 2024 1:26 PM
To: Ted Floyd <tedfl...@gmail.com>
Cc: Colorado Birds <cob...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [cobirds] South-central Colorado, Mar. 12– 17, 2024
Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?
I spent my childhood consuming everything on TV, including the ads - this is something I know very well.
Thanks for sharing, Ted! I love the idea of getting this kind of audio of insects and adding it to my iNat posts! So cool!
Matt
Matthew M Webb
Senior Avian Ecologist and Motus Wildlife Tracking System Coordinator
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies
970.482.1707 x36 (office)
970.405.7155 (mobile - use this number!)
On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 11:15 AM Ted Floyd <tedfl...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 7:18 AM Matt Webb <matt...@birdconservancy.org> wrote:
Ted,
Thanks for the interesting report! Did you post the beetle recording to iNaturalist? Can you share a link if you did? I’d like to give it a listen!
This might be a bit before your time, Matt . . .
* Join Colorado Field Ornithologists https://cobirds.org/membership/
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