Our bird walk this past Saturday morning to Twin Lakes Open Space in Gunbarrel was predictably quiet. Now that the hustle and bustle of breeding season is over, birds are more subdued and secretive, much more concerned with building up their fat reserves for migration or to make it through the Colorado winter than advertising for a mate or to protect territory.
One stark reminder of this was watching two Northern Flickers, both male, eating berries from the same Virginia creeper vine. Flickers are usually protective of food and territory, but these two were eating companionably next to each other. Flickers are primarily insectivores, but as the weather cools and berries become more available than insects, they will eat more fruit and seeds.
We were also able to watch Black-capped Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches visit some spruces heavy with cones. It appeared they may have been caching the seeds because they would fly to the trees, grab a seed then fly off and come back a few minutes later. An article in Science News last year suggests that Black-capped Chickadees store memories of each food cache in a unique location in their brain. When the chickadee wants to retrieve a store of food, the neurons associated with that particular cache are activated, kind of like accessing a file folder.
Warblers are on the move right now, and we caught several glimpses of Wilson’s Warblers flitting through the trees. Warblers never stay still, so we brought along Swarovski’s newest AI binocular, the AX Visio, which allowed us to stream what I was seeing through the binocular to a tablet connected via Bluetooth using its “live view” setting. That capability makes the AX Visio ideal for leading bird walks or nature outings, especially when it’s difficult to get participants on a bird. It also has the ability to identify species using AI technology.
In all, we had 21 species of bird. It’s always interesting to watch how animals react to the change in the seasons and it’s fun to anticipate who you might see or not see in another month. We hope you’ll be one of those we see on our next bird walk!
Twin Lakes (Boulder County)
21 species
Mallard 8
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Great Blue Heron 1
Osprey 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 3
Blue Jay 4
American Crow 4
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Barn Swallow 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch 2
American Robin 4
Cedar Waxwing 4
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 1
Spotted Towhee 1
Red-winged Blackbird 45
Brewer’s Blackbird 2
Common Grackle 4
Wilson’s Warbler 5