There isn’t much migration action happening locally, so I drove to southeast Colorado to see if I could find some elsewhere. I started on Higbee Valley Road where Vermilion and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers have been seen recently. I saw some good birds, but even there things were slower than I expected. I’ve seen Black-throated Sparrows there before, but this one was particularly cooperative.
Orange-crowned Warbler
From Higbee Valley, I drove east to Lamar. A small creek in a patch of brushy woods tends to draw some eastern birds. I saw a pair of Cardinals and a couple Chimney Swifts. The woods were crawling with Swainson’s Thrushes. I also saw my first Colorado Carolina Wren. But there wasn’t much in the way of migrants. The one small patch of open water was home to a snapping turtle.
The problem with making this trip all in one day is that a lot of valuable birding time is spent driving and the urge to move on to the next spot is strong. In Lamar, I met another birder whom I’ve talked with before. He said he’d stopped at Hasty Lake, but there weren’t many migrants there either. That had been my next planned stop, but when I heard his report, I strongly considered skipping it. At the last minute, I decided to go. I’m glad I did because the shorebirds were out — not so much in numbers, but in variety.
A male Wilson’s Phalarope. There were perhaps 25 on the lake, of both sexes, but this one was particularly tame and came wandering up the shore to within maybe 20 feet of where I stood.
The large bird in front is a Long-billed Dowitcher, as is the one with its tail sticking up. The small sandpiper in the background is a Least. The other bird, facing the camera, is a Stilt Sandpiper. They have a similar foraging strategy to dowitchers and often feed with them. I can’t remember seeing one in spring plumage before.
Black-necked Stilt
My last stop of the day was Holbrook Reservoir near Rocky Ford. Even though it’s two hours from home, it has become my go-to spot for shorebirds since Ramah Reservoir dried up a couple years ago. But when I arrived, I discovered that Holbrook Reservoir was now Holbrook Big Flat Dirt Patch. There wasn’t a drop of water in it, and I didn’t even get out of my car. I headed home, but while I was still on the back roads near the reservoir, I spotted this very cooperative Scaled Quail.
I’d left home at 5:45 AM and got back around 6:15 PM. I saw 66 birds on the day, including 18 new for the year and 1 new for Colorado. It was a lot of driving, but it had its highlights.