[cobirds] Weld County - Severance, Crow Valley, grasslands

Nancy and I birded Weld County today (Monday), including Crow Valley, with the hope that the rainy weather would have created a fallout of warblers.  No such luck.  But we did have a good day of birding.

Our first stop was the wetland a half mile south of CO14 on WCR23 (Severance).  If anyone needs their annual fix of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, come here.  We saw at least 50 of them perched up on the reeds, calling their raspy songs.  We also had two Clark's Grebes out on the water here, as well as a half dozen Redheads and a couple Great-tailed Grackles.  There were several Marsh Wrens singing in the reeds on the south side of the pond.

Crow Valley was a disappointment, unless you love Swainson's Thrushes.  There was a Swainson's Thrush fallout.  We saw at least 75 of them and lost count.  The Brown Thrashers of a couple days ago had moved out.  We saw only 2 pairs at Crow Valley.  We also saw one Gray Catbird and one Green-tailed Towhee at the back of the campground, and a Northern Mockingbird at the USFS Work Center just north of the campground.   A few Lincoln's Sparrows in the campground were a good find.  They were joined by several Lark Sparrows, a few White-crowneds and Chippings.

The surprise out on the grasslands, on the auto-tour route, was that we saw NO longspurs, not even McCown's.  But the Lark Buntings were everywhere, mostly males.  They were still in flocks, and there were only a few females, suggesting that they have arrived very recently.  There also were many Vesper Sparrows and a few Clay-coloreds along the auto-tour route.  At Norma's Grove, again no warblers but several Swainson's Thrushes.

We finally found a pair of Mountain Plover on WCR 100 about a half mile east of WCR 37 in a recently burned area on the south side of the road.  There were also a few Burrowing Owls in prairie-dog towns in this area.

We wonder if the migration hasn't really hit Crow Valley, or if the migrants have just overflown the area in the recent nice weather.

 

Charles Bell
612 Manhead Mountain Drive
Livermore, CO 80536
970-484-8791