Five American Golden-Plovers and a Black-bellied Plover at birdy BYO Playa, Weld County

[Joe Roller]

Thanks to Rudi Nuissl for posting his observation of American Golden Plover at the playa

that straddles Weld County Road 75 between Roads 100 and 102, all of which are a few 

miles north of Crow Valley Campground, north of Murphy's Pasture in Weld County.

Joe Himmel told me that he has been visiting this playa for decades during the infrequent times it holds water. 

There is a lot of water in it now after a four inch July rain, according to the the Olivers, who

are ranchers who own part of that acreage. They were very friendly and welcoming to the 

birders scoping it this morning. Other ranchers own parts of that wetland, including the Yates

and Boyds. Mr. Risner also lives near there. 

I asked if that water body had a name and one guy said, "Of course it doesn't have a name, it's

never there!"  (He had only recently moved in and was surprised at its sudden appearance after the rain).

Well, it's there now. The Olivers call it the BYO Playa, based on the initials of the 3 owners. RMBO

has done some work with these ranchers, as part of their Stewardship division.

This morning, I broke off from Joey Kellner's estimable party of birders who were checking out Crow Valley,

unable to contain my excitement. (What else is new?).

After my initial astonishment at seeing such a big lake, marked by only a tiny dot on the map, I saw two distant Pluvialis Plovers, 

which disappeared during the Northern Harrier fly-by.

Four Pluvialis plovers then appeared on the southeast edge of the water body, allowing close study & lousy photographs.

I was soon joined by Rachel Hopper, and we saw several field marks suggesting American Golden

Plover (juvy) including wing tips extending beyond the tail, dark crown, relatively small bill and relatively 

slender profile (the smaller AGPL (145 g) is outweighed by the chunkier BBPL, (240 g), Sibley. We were 

confident that none of them was a Pacific Golden-Plover.

Before long they seemed to disappear before our eyes and reappear on the north 

side. From there 4 or 5 took flight and we then saw that one had the classic dark "wing-pits" and white

rump of a Black-bellied Plover. When they obligingly flew overhead, we saw that 3 or 4 others had no such marks and were

clearly AGPLs. Joey's group joined us as did Steve Mlodinoff. More scanning, study and photos. By the time we were done, I think

that we had seen 5 AGPL's but did not clearly see the BBPL again. There were several Pectoral Sandpipers, Yellowlegs,

at least 2 Long-billed Dowitchers (very scarce this fall), lots of Baird's and other shorebirds. 

American Pipits and McCown's Longspurs populated the distant west shore; finally one longspur landed on a fence post

near the road. 

It will be interesting to check the BYO Playa as the migration continues to unfold. What could turn

up? More plovers? The "long-billed" shorebirds? Buffy? Do Tattlers ever Wander?

Joe Roller, 

Denver