PAINTED BUNTING Cottonwood Canyon, Baca County continues Monday

[Dick Filby]

Hi all,

 

Denise Landau, Tom and Kay McConnell and I had a great weekend in the Cottonwood Canyon area (where zero cell service, so apologies for lack of postings)

 

The male PAINTED BUNTING that Denise found on Sunday at the informal campsite at the north end of the Cottonwood Canyon continued yesterday, still singing in the same copse of oaks and cedars by the creek. Documentation photos and video obtained

 

Other migrant birds in the area over the weekend included a fem/1yr male AMERICAN REDSTART on Friday, ORCHARD ORIOLES, male SUMMER TANAGER, OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER, a couple of WILSON’S WARBERS, YELLOW-BREASTED CHATS, AUDUBON’S WARBLERS, a COMMON YELLOWTHROAT and a flock of (tardy?) CEDAR WAXWINGS.  We also heard, but did not see, two or more LONG-BILLED CURLEWS, east of Baca Rd 3.  CASSIN’S SPARROWS seem to be in good numbers on the grasslands where vegetation still exists, but many areas are so affected by the drought, and by prairie-dogs, that the habitat is seriously compromised.  We did NOT hear a single GRASSHOPPER SPARROW.  On the other hand, RUFOUS-CROWNED SPARROWS were seemingly numerous in the rimrock areas, as were EASTERN PHOEBES, BULLOCK’S ORIOLES, WESTERN and CASSIN’S KINGBIRDS and BLUE GROSBEAKS near the water.  Up to ten or more MISSISSIPPI KITES were seen daily, and we saw mating and nestbuilding activity too.  Indeed, we encountered most of the breeding birds of the area, albeit in varying numbers, including a single ROADRUNNER.  Despite being Memorial Weekend, there were very few people and only a couple of other birders. We met Eric DeFonso who was doing RMBO survey work, and he told us that on Saturday he had seen a singing BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER at Carrizo Creek picnic area, plus a YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, and another YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO in Cottonwood Canyon on Sunday.

 

Amazingly we received approximately 0.5” of rain from thunderstorms on Friday night, but that is the only significant rain so far this year according to the folks on the Everett Ranch. As we left on Monday, we encountered several hundred head of cattle being driven west along Baca County road M into the canyons, as, in the words of the folks moving them, there’s no grass left anywhere else in the area.  They had brought them 20 miles from the east, ie the Campo area.  Tough times for all.

 

Footnote:  We picked up (too much) trash at the Cottonwood Canyon informal campsite – which is on private property.. Not sure what the tolerance levels of the owners are to trash, but seeing as access to this site is a privilege not a right, we figured that cleaning up after others was a good move on many levels!

 

I’m off to the High Arctic next week, leading some ship–based birding,  so after this week there’ll be no more Colorado posts from me for a while.

 

Wishing you all a great summer filled with good birding

 

Dick Filby

Carbondale, CO

 

 

 

[Eric DeFonso]

Thanks to Dick for posting on my behalf. I was out of email and cell contact for several days, but was glad to meet him and his crew in Baca County! I should add that they were most hospitable to me after we birded together, even feeding me Sunday evening after a full week in the field eating just camp food and snacks.

I was able to refind the PAINTED BUNTING quite easily mid-day Monday after work and even into the afternoon at Cottonwood Canyon - I managed to get good quality sound recordings to boot. (Is that worth submitting to CFO?) My hunch is that the Bunting will stick around a while. He seemed quite territorial and not-at-all skulky, so if you're thinking of going after him, I think he'll be worth the effort. Not much else to report there other than what Dick already mentioned, although the Yellow-billed Cuckoo re-emerged further up the canyon yesterday evening.

As mentioned, I did have a Black-throated Green Warbler at Carrizo Canyon Picnic area in Baca very near Cottonwood Canyon on Saturday but I was not able to relocate him after the first find.

Lastly, I will amplify Dick's discussion of the dryness in Baca County. It is frightening to see how dry and dusty the place is getting - I did a number of transects in the Comanche Grasslands over the past 9 days, and to be blunt they look terrible. We did get a rainstorm on Friday night, but it is just the proverbial drop in the bucket. However, my grassland transect today in Las Animas County was much cheerier, as I was able to report a lot more green, growing grass, and where the grassland meets with a juniper ravine those survey points were delightfully birdy. They could probably still use more, but at least it wasn't the dust bowl that so much of Baca and Prowers are resembling. The only birds that seem to be handling it well are Horned Larks and Cassin's Sparrows. On 3 of my transects I had no fewer than 3 and often 4 Cassin'ses at each of my 16 survey points. Love those birds.

Eric DeFonso

currently in La Junta, CO