Category: Bird Walks

We visited two main areas this morning, South Platte Reservoir and the smaller ponds just to the east of the reservoir along the South Platte River.  The reservoir had very little action, but we did get to have excellent views of a pair of Long-tailed Ducks.  These guys were historically known as Oldsquaws, evidently because they (the males primarily, actually) tend to be far more vocal than most other ducks and can be heard for long distances.  This politically incorrect name was changed about twenty years ago, and the name from across the Atlantic for this species was adopted.

Long-tailed Duck – non-breeding male (c) Bill Schmoker

Long-tailed Ducks have several unique qualities.  One is that they dive deeper than any other duck, down to almost 200 feet.  Hence, we tend to see them when they show up in Colorado on only the largest reservoirs.  Then, unlike any other waterfowl, they have three plumages instead of the normal two. In the non-breeding season, when we see these guys here in Colorado, the male has a white forehead and crown, a black nape and sub-auricular area (below the ear), a beige patch on the side of head, a bi-colored black-pink-and black bill, and a white chin and breast. The most distinctive feature is the two long central tail feathers that stream behind. The female has a white eyeline, neck, nape, and area where bill meets face, a dark sub-auricular area (sort of like the male), and otherwise she is mostly mottled brown (see photo at the top of the blog).

Western Meadowlark (c) Bill Schmoker

One of our morning’s highlights was getting to see a flock of 28 (more or less) Western Meadowlarks in the top of a cottonwood.  We have Meadowlarks throughout the year here in Colorado, with more around in the summer than the winter.  However, these wintering birds tend to hang out together in small flocks, so when we do get to see them, we tend to see more than one bird at a time.  Our flock did seem to be unusually large, and it was interesting that they were all in the top of a tree.

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Audubon’s race in fall (c) Bill Schmoker

Another great bird we saw was an Audubon’s race of the Yellow-rumped Warbler.  This is the western race, while the eastern race is the Myrtle.  We have both races here in the winter.  These two were considered to be separate species back in the day, but because of the degree of hybridization they were lumped together as one species.  The yellow rump is always bright yellow regardless of the time of year or the race.  Superficially, we always talk about the Audubon’s having a yellow throat and the Myrtle having a white throat but take a look in your field guide and note that the yellow throat of an Audubon’s in first-year birds can be very washed out and almost white.  A good feature to look for is whether that throat patch is restricted to the throat area (Audubon’s), or whether it wraps around back of the auricular (ear) patch (Myrtle).

I hope to see you on another walk soon!

Chuck

 
South Platte Park, Feb 6, 2021
32 species

Cackling Goose  20
Canada Goose  33
Northern Shoveler  30
Gadwall  72
American Wigeon  20
Mallard  38
Green-winged Teal  56
Ring-necked Duck  44
Lesser Scaup  10
Long-tailed Duck 2
Bufflehead 12
Common Goldeneye 15
Hooded Merganser 28
Common Merganser 2
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull 8
Great Blue Heron 1
Bald Eagle 2
Red-tailed Hawk 6
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker 6
American Kestrel 2
Black-billed Magpie 3
American Crow 3
Black-capped Chickadee 12
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
House Finch 14
Song Sparrow 1
Western Meadowlark 28
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) 1

Greater Scaup (c) Bill Schmoker

Saturday at South Platte Park was a memorable one.  We had great weather, a great group, and OUTSTANDING birds!  We began at Blackrock Lake where we spent time working on the finer points of Greater Scaup identification.  These diving ducks belong to the Aythyagenus along with Canvasback, Redhead, Tufted Duck, Ringed-neck Duck, and Lesser Scaup.  A few of these are very similar and it takes some work learning the subtle differences required to differentiate them. Telling Greater Scaup from Lesser Scaup is the biggest of these challenges.  They are very similar in all plumages.  However, here are a few things to work on.  Greater Scaup are 18” long and weigh 2.3 lbs; Lesser Scaup are only an inch shorter, but they weigh half a pound less (22% less).  So, Greaters just seem heftier – bigger rounded head, big jowls, wide body; while Lessers are more attenuated – thinner body, thinner head, thinner neck, more pointy-headed. This is all pretty subtle stuff, but we wouldn’t want this bird-watching game to be too easy now, would we?  One of the things that really helped us out on Saturday was that the Greater Scaup were mixed in with some Ring-necked Ducks which are roughly the same size and weight as Lesser Scaup.  Our Greaters were significantly bigger than the Ring-necked Ducks.

We next moved on over to where the South Platte flows under C-470.  There was a good variety of ducks here, but the real prize was a singing American Dipper that just went on and on.  Beautiful! Particularly in December!

Swamp Sparrow (c) Bill Schmoker

We then proceeded over to a relatively new beaver pond just south of C-470 where we had several great birds: Wood Duck, Wilson’s Snipe, Swamp Sparrow, Rusty Blackbird, and Pine Warbler. The look we had at the Swamp Sparrow was world class.  The bird sat out in the open for ten minutes and we got to note every important feature – similar to a Song Sparrow but a bit smaller, more delicate, and shorter tailed – strongly streaked gray and brown crown, gray nape, clean white throat, dark rufous wings and shoulders, blurry gray-buff streaking on upper breast, and clean white belly.  The best look I’ve ever had!  We got a good enough look at the Rusty Blackbird in order to identify it, but it was high in a tree and a bit far away.

Pine Warbler (c) Rob Raker

Finally, the real highlight of the day was the Pine Warbler.  This bird breeds and winters in the eastern half of the United States, occurring rarely here in Colorado.  We had several opportunities to get reasonably good looks – greenish-olive crown and back, throat and breast bright yellow with line of faint yellow extending back below and behind the darker auricular (ear) patch, with faint smudgy streaking on sides of the breast, white belly and under-tail coverts, yellow broken eye-ring creating eye arcs above and below the eye with a small yellow lore spot (between the eye and the bill), wings grayish with two strong white wing-bars. There was one disconcerting feature on this bird – it’s lower mandible was deformed, having grown out longer than normal.  It seemed to be doing fine, but who knows what the impact of that may have on its survivorship.

Risty Blackbird (c) Bill Schmoker

Good birding!  
Chuck

South Platte Park,  Dec 5, 2020
40 species (+1 other taxa)

Canada Goose  24
Cackling/Canada Goose  80
Wood Duck  2
Northern Shoveler  38
Gadwall  30
American Wigeon  18
Mallard  37
Green-winged Teal  13
Ring-necked Duck  46
Greater Scaup  8
Bufflehead  12
Common Goldeneye  19
Hooded Merganser  18
Common Merganser  22
Pied-billed Grebe  2
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  6
American Coot  7
Killdeer  3
Wilson’s Snipe  1
Ring-billed Gull  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
Belted Kingfisher  4
Hairy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  3
American Kestrel  1
Blue Jay  1
Black-billed Magpie  2
American Crow  2
Common Raven  2
Black-capped Chickadee  16
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Brown Creeper  1
American Dipper  1
House Finch  2
American Goldfinch  1
Song Sparrow  7
Swamp Sparrow  1
Western Meadowlark  1
Rusty Blackbird  1
Pine Warbler  1