Weld/Morgan yesterday
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Migrant
Jul 7, 2016, 9:22:07 AM7/7/16
to 'Dan Stringer' via Colorado Birds
Yesterday I made loop through Weld and Morgan Counties with an emphasis on the playas of the area. Because of potential high temps I got an early start, hitting the prairie dog town at Weld 100/99 (as mentioned in a post by Gary Lefko) around 6:00, and it didn't disappoint. First, the dip: in spite of great-looking habitat (tall grass on the north side of the road, short grass around the pdogs on the south), I didn't pick up any longspurs. The mountain plovers didn't disappoint, however, with at least six in the town. There were also a couple of burrowing owls and many killdeer and horned larks.
Grasshopper sparrows were numerous along the roadside fences. Looping down into Morgan County, the playa at MCR 23/HH had several avocets and three least sandpipers. The nice surprise here was a pair of black-necked stilts accompanied by three chicks. I haven't checked the breeding status of stilts here, but I thought this was interesting. At 26/JJ playa were mostly the usual suspects, including all three teal and several white pelicans, with the only bird of note being a Virginia rail that apparently had wandered out of the taller vegetation at the south end of the pond. The large pond at JJ/31 had a lot of typical birds, including two greater yellowlegs.
Moving to several more ponds to the east and into the southwest corner of Logan County, a playa at LCR 5 south of 16 had an eBird-annoying 40+ eared grebes.
At this point I began the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" portion of the day. Prewitt Reservoir produced a nice assortment of red-headed woodpeckers, chats, grebes, Franklin's gulls on the move, and a note to self: when the car thermometer hits triple digits, it's time to go home.
Norm Lewis
Lakewood
Grasshopper sparrows were numerous along the roadside fences. Looping down into Morgan County, the playa at MCR 23/HH had several avocets and three least sandpipers. The nice surprise here was a pair of black-necked stilts accompanied by three chicks. I haven't checked the breeding status of stilts here, but I thought this was interesting. At 26/JJ playa were mostly the usual suspects, including all three teal and several white pelicans, with the only bird of note being a Virginia rail that apparently had wandered out of the taller vegetation at the south end of the pond. The large pond at JJ/31 had a lot of typical birds, including two greater yellowlegs.
Moving to several more ponds to the east and into the southwest corner of Logan County, a playa at LCR 5 south of 16 had an eBird-annoying 40+ eared grebes.
At this point I began the "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" portion of the day. Prewitt Reservoir produced a nice assortment of red-headed woodpeckers, chats, grebes, Franklin's gulls on the move, and a note to self: when the car thermometer hits triple digits, it's time to go home.
Norm Lewis
Lakewood
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