Listing Through Life

dendroica (from dendron, tree, and oikos, home or habitat) townsendi (named for John Townsend, American naturalist and collector)

Sunday, May 21, 2017 — 9:40 am

Fountain Creek Regional Park — Fountain, Colorado

I’m still getting use to birding in my new state. I can’t go out during spring migration and find 20+ species of warblers like I occasionally could in Illinois. Ten warblers in a day in Colorado would be an excellent day.

I went out on a Sunday morning to see how many I could find. I saw several Yellow Warblers, a Wilson’s Warbler, a Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a Yellow-breasted Chat, all pretty much expected. I also found a cooperative singing Bay-breasted Warbler, which is a rarity in the west.

I was wandering along a bike path between Fountain Creek and a water-filled ditch. Bushes and short trees bordered the path on both sides.

I heard a Black-capped Chickadee in the vegetation on the right, beyond the rock. As I looked at it, I saw a second bird, about the same size. It was facing away from me, and I saw two bold white wing bars on silver-blue wings. I could see a touch of bright yellow on the side, so I knew it was a warbler. It turned around so I could see the front. The breast, sides of the neck, and eyebrow were all bright yellow. The crown, eye-stripe, and throat were black. At first I thought Magnolia Warbler, but I quickly eliminated that. Black-throated Green? No, they don’t have black caps or yellow breast. I suddenly realized I was looking at a Townsend’s Warbler, a lifer. And at that point it flitted down lower along the creek and I never found it again.

I knew it wasn’t overly common east of the mountains, but it is apparently notable. Somebody saw my checklist on eBird and added it to the Colorado Birding Society Rare Bird Report.

I’ve birded in short spurts since I’ve moved to Colorado, but this weekend was the first time I took a large chunk of a day just for birding.

I started at Fountain Creek Regional Park, the closest thing in the Colorado Springs area to mid-western habitat. With the recent rain and snow, it was a lot greener than the last time I visited.

Soon after I arrived, I discovered a singing Bay-breasted Warbler. They’re fairly common in the Midwest, so while I wondered if it was common in Colorado, I didn’t think too much of it. There were a lot of birders at the park on this day, including a group from a national birding fest. Turns out the warbler was a big deal, and I didn’t pass a birder the rest of the time I was there without hearing about it.

I saw about 40 birds in three hours, including Yellow, Wilson’s, Yellow-rumped, and Towsend’s Warblers (next post) and a Yellow-breasted Chat.

Snapping Turtle and Painted Turtle

From Fountain I drove out to Calhan to Paint Mines Regional Park. A Sage Thrasher had been seen there recently, and that would be another lifer. Driving west on Route 24 near Falcon, I saw a silhouette in a roadside cottonwood. I made a quick U-turn and discovered a Great Horned Owl nest.

At Paint Mines, the parking lots and paint formations were packed, but there weren’t many people on the trails away from the formations. Or birds. I did see a Lark Bunting. I got no hint of a Sage Thrasher. Signs at the entrance say “absolutely no pets,” which, in Colorado, apparently makes it mandatory that you bring a dog. This park was also greener than on my last visit, although there was no water anywhere.

Here’s Pikes Peak from 40 miles to the east. I think the further from the mountain you get, the bigger it seems.

A strangely-tame Black-tailed Jackrabbit was foraging rapidly along the trail. It didn’t pay a lot of attention to me and, at one point, came within 15 feet. Suddenly a guy walked rudely up next to me and scared it away. He took some photos with a tiny point-and-shoot camera as it scampered away — I’m sure it was hard to find the animal in the photos. After it was gone, he turned to me and said, “You don’t see a lot of those around here, do you?” I said “sometimes.” I was tempted to say, “You don’t. I do.”

As long as I was in the area, I stopped at Ramah State Wildlife Area to see what was there. The duck and grebe numbers were down, but there were still several species. About 20 Wilson’s Phalarope were wading and swimming around. The only extraordinary sighting was a flock of seven Red-necked Phalaropes. I guess they are fairly uncommon around here, but this weekend, people have been seeing them everywhere.

Red-necked Phalarope

Wilson’s Phalarope

taxidea taxus

Saturday, May 20, 2017 – 11:20 am

Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Colorado

We were driving the wildlife loop at the prairie refuge between downtown Denver and the Denver Airport. We saw two or three vehicles stopped along the side of the road, which almost always means that something interesting is in the area. I pulled over and immediately saw this. I’d never seen a Badger before, but I knew immediately what it was.

When one of the cars pulled away, I took its spot for a better view. We saw that there were two young playing around the entrance to its hole. A few minutes later, a third young one popped out briefly.

For the ten minutes or so that we watched, the adult stayed low and kept its eyes on us. The young play-fought and wandered about the immediate area.

The U.S. government developed chemical weapons on this site east of Denver during WWII. Then Shell Oil bought it and used it to make agricultural chemicals until 1985. Two things became apparent at that point: 1) the site was badly contaminated, and 2) there was a lot of wildlife. I don’t know if its been cleaned up at all, but we thought we could risk a couple hours. If you enlarge this panorama, you can see the buildings of downtown Denver, but otherwise, it sure didn’t feel like we were in a city.

We drove the wildlife loop first. We saw Mule and White-tailed Deer and a family of Badgers (next post). There were also Bison, but they’re penned into a specific part of the refuge and it really feels more like you’re seeing them in a zoo.

Did I mention Black-tailed Prairie Dogs? They were everywhere.

I’m not sure what this structure is. It looks like a place to observe explosions. There was a Horned Lark on the roof.

Western Meadowlark. There were a lot of them too.

Here are the buffalo. I knew you were wondering.

After we finished driving the loop, we parked by the lakes and hiked around one of them.

There were swarms of swallows everywhere. Most of them were Cliff Swallows, but I spotted a handful of Banks and Barns thrown in.

It was free to get in, and we rarely went more than 10 minutes without seeing some animal or bird worth looking at. Definitely worth the trip.