Lamar (Prowers) of late

[DAVID A LEATHERMAN]

Arriving here a week ago evening (4/9), I have been birding mostly the mythical Lamar "CBC" circle and chasing a few rarities.  The Lake Holbrook Little Blue Heron and Lake Hasty Brown Pelican found by Stan Oswald and Jill White-Smith, respectively, were special.  When we were at Lake Hasty the John Martin Dam was already closed for the nightly terrorist alert so did not go look for the Iceland Gull reported by Tony Leukering.  Yet another great bird.  Duane Nelson arranged for the on-going Canyon Towhee and two Curve-billed Thrashers to appear in his Las Animas yard.  Thanks, Duane.

In Lamar I have seen 92 species, 36 of them new Colorado Year List birds but only the Northern Parula female today at Lamar Community College (LCC) Woods near the Library in flowering cottonwoods and the female Golden-crowned Kinglet at Lamar's Fairmount Cemetery in pines on 4/14 could be called special or somewhat unexpected.  Four Barn Owls seems a bit high but this is the time of year non-wintering Barn Owls return to the southern plains.  Today was my first Orange-crowned Warbler (at LCC).  There has been one Hermit Thrush (at Fairmount), a few Northern Mockingbirds, one Brown Thrasher, two Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a few Chipping Sparrows, one Lincoln's Sparrow, a few Barn Swallows (no other swallows), a few Say's Phoebes, no empids, no buntings, no Summer Tanagers, no kingbirds, no House Wren, several Franklin's Gulls, a few Bonaparte's Gulls (Thurston Res), you get the picture.

Will be interesting to see if the migrant dam breaks a bit when this cold, wet system moves on.  The moisture down here has been MOST welcome.

Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins