Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR, Adams Co., June 3—wet & many birds

[Ted Floyd]

Hey, all.

With Hannah Floyd, I enjoyed a most splendiferous visit earlier this soggy Sat. morning, June 3, 2023, to Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Adams Co.

Where to start? Well, how about a wet peregrine falcon out along the auto loop:

Also a wet, and rather remonstrative, Swainson hawk near the refuge hq:

We saw burrowing owls out there, too. The most reliable place, in my experience in 2022–2023, has been just off Rattlesnake Hill Rd. at 39.829988 N, 104.852310 W. They're always there (in season); and so they were this morning. They're also along the auto loop proper but, in my experience anyhow, a lot harder to pick out.

Speaking of the auto loop, the lark bunting and grasshopper sparrow show out there was insane. Easily 60 skylarking males of the former and 12 songsters of the latter—and I can't even hear the latter anymore. Well, not very well. But they were right along the road, teed up and nicely audible. Here's one of the lark buntings:

And here's one of the grasshopper sparrows:

Here's another Arsenal sparrow, a spotted towhee:

The snowy egret show was impressive. We saw 55 in a single flooded pasture. Protip: In documenting high counts for eBird, consider simply taking a photo of the whole flock. To wit:

10 egrets between each of the red bars + 5 stragglers off to the right. 55, and the eBird reviewers will love you for it.

Some other avian odds & ends at The Arsenal: 12 ruddy ducks still hanging on, a late yellowlegs, a flyby big chongus (marbled godwit or long-billed curlew, just too far away to tell), a white-faced ibis, an eastern warbling vireo, a rock wren, a brown thrasher and a northern mockingbird, 3 yellow-breasted chats, 2 orchard orioles, and 4 blue grosbeaks.

75 species for the morning, and we made it back to Lafayette in time for the Chipotle attraction/promotion that expired at noon. Wouldn't miss that for the world.

Great iNatting, too, at The Arsenal this morning.

We found our obligatory slime mold:

And this, er, thing:

It's called a stinkhorn, which is funny, but get a load of the scientific name, viz., Phallus impudicus. That literally means the "lewd penis." You can't kick me off COBIRDS for saying that, Linnaeus gave it the name. Even before Linnaeus had come on the scene, the English botanist John Gerard named it the "pricke mushroom." The "e" at the end like that makes it dignified and British. But I digress.

The award for best bloomers this morning was a tie between all the western spiderworts and prolific New Mexico locusts:

 

These two got the last word in:

Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder Co.