Some Logan County Birds
William H Kaempfer
The Colorado Field Ornithologists Board of Directors held its spring board meeting in Sterling today which gave several of us an opportunity to bird in NE Colorado. I went out to Sterling Friday afternoon and met up with Mike Henwood and Larry Modesitt at North Sterling State Park Friday afternoon. The Reservoir was covered with gulls—but we only could identify the four most common for this time of year including hundreds of Bonaparte’s. At the south east corner of the park the prairie dog town had two pairs of calling, and in one case copulating, Burrowing Owls, plus calling Great-horned Owls nearby.
Today we headed on east and started our morning by traveling the wonderful prairie along Logan County Road 93 south of I-76. We didn’t have any Greater Prairie Chickens which can be found here in the summer, but did have several Ring-necked Pheasants, FOS Vesper Sparrows and a handful of Northern Harriers.
From there we went on to Red Lion SWA. Terrific news! The water conditions at Red Lion are wonderful. The alkaline pools along LCR 95 are in great shape meaning top notch shorebird habitat right by the road, and further in if you venture out from the road. Of course it is only April 12, so shore bird sightings were limited to Killdeer, Greater Yellowlegs and American Avocet. We also had a Swainson’s Hawk back along US 138 and a couple of Brown-headed Cowbirds. We took the short hike into the marsh below “Little Jumbo” where Mike found us a White-throated Sparrow and I heard a calling Field Sparrow. Jumbo Reservoir itself is full to the brim as are all of the northeastern Reservoirs (including Prewitt and North Sterling).
Finally, here is a reminder for everyone—last year’s stupendous longspur plus fallout took place after a snow on Tuesday, April 16. With 8 inches of snow forecast for tomorrow, April 13th, ….
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder