Date: 8/2/26 11:35 am From: Ted Floyd <tedfloyd73...> Subject: [cobirds] Colorado Sesquicentennial Celebration at The Arsenal, Aug. 1, 2026
Hope everybody had a festive Sesquicentennial Day yesterday, Sat., Aug. 1.
I sure did. With birding buds Wanda Kane-Harris, Elena Klaver, Pete
Christiansen, Felice Lyons, Isaac Boardman, Archer Silverman, Sebrina
Brooks, Michael Ward, Trevor Sleight, and Tykee James, I spent the long hot
day at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Adams Co., the
Crown Jewel of Centennial State birding & nature study. Proof-of-life photo:
[image: 01 Arsenal birders.jpg]
We started dark and early, outside the refuge gate, where Tykee had been
stationed since the commencement of astronomical dawn. Go figure. The rest
of us got there decadently late, during nautical dawn. Anyhow, there was a
modest flight of NFC-detected eastbound *chipping sparrows* on
their midsummer nocturnal molt-migration to the High Plains. Also a *great
horned owl* and a *common nighthawk.*
Then it was off to Big Bluestem, which did not disappoint. We listened in
awestruck wonder to the fluttery, far-carrying flight calls of a
couple of *upland
sandpipers* on VisMig. Seen-only was a hulking *long-billed curlew* flying
in from First Creek Open Space, where the species may have summered. Also
two *loggerhead shrikes* and six *sage thrashers.* And this: an exact tally
of 1,278 *rock pigeons,* painstakingly counted by Pete & Archer. The
Arsenal Pigeon Fly-Out, which happens every morning of the year, never
ceases to mesmerize.
Next was Upper Derby Woods, where the highlight was a vocal *red-headed
woodpecker.* Also some forest birds, easy to miss at The Arsenal:* downy
woodpecker,* *white-breasted nuthatch,* and *blue jay.* Four *Brewer
sparrows,* doubtless a little migratory assemblage, were moving through a
patch of sandsage, *Artemisia filifolia*, there.
Lower Derby Rez had lowish water and many birds: two *wood ducks,* a *Mexican
duck x mallard* intergrade, six *lesser yellowlegs,* four *Baird
sandpipers,* two *western cattle-egrets,* and two uncommon *violent-green
swallows* among the more expected species. Also a Zak Hepler sighting.
Across the way, at Rod & Gun Club Pond, which really needs a better
name: *broad-tailed
hummingbird, orchard oriole,* and *blue grosbeak.* And two non-avian
highlights: the long-awaited distribution & mass consumption of Felice's
famous chocolate chip cookie bars; and the obtaining of unprecedented audio
documentation of the complex sonations of *Tetraopes femoratus*, the
red-femured milkweed borer, a spectacular cerambycid. Here ya go:
[image: 02 spectrogram.png]
The intricate squiggles from 6 kHz down to about 2 kHz are the song of the
beetle, and the steady band up around 8 kHz is the song of two Allard
ground crickets, *Allonemobius allardi*. Our motto: "If it has protoplasm,
we iNat it."
Including plants. August isn't exactly high season for prairie wildflowers,
but this lone inflorescence—just the one!—of *Lygodesmia juncea*, the rush
skeletonplant, was a holdout from earlier in the season:
[image: 03 rush skeleton.jpg]
Where were we again? 😁 Ah yes. The Lower Ladora marshes, with two *Wilson
snipes,* two *ospreys,* and a *blue-gray gnatcatcher.* Remember that old ad
campaign?— "This is a good place for a stickup!" The boardwalk at Lower
Ladora could use a whole shipment of Air Wicks. I believe all of us
incurred permanent olfactory bulb damage there. But the odes didn't seem to
mind. The blue dashers, *Pachydiplax longipennis*, were legion:
[image: 04 blue dasher.jpg]
The nearby Havana ponds had *solitary sandpipers,* one each, natch, at each
pond. Also some nice landbirds, despite the advanced hour and considerable
heat: *black-chinned hummingbird, spotted towhee, yellow-breasted chat,*
and four *lazuli buntings*. A cool robber fly was this marauder (I'm not
making that up), genus *Proctacanthus*:
[image: 05 marauder.jpg]
No new species at Upper Ladora, but we boosted our tallies there: 15
more *peebie
jeebies,* 25 more *double-crested cormorants* engaged in desperate gular
flutter, 10 more *snowy egrets* (43 for the visit), and another western
cattle-egret (5 total). Some weird, bleached, worn, sun-blasted, subadult
*LWHG* defied Archer's noblest attempts at conjecture. It was getting
late...
But we'd gotten our second wind now! The wildlife drive was next up. It was
Colorado Day, recall, so we marked the occasion with careful study of all
the state bird *lark buntings* along the route. Here's a hot female:
[image: 06 LarB 01.jpg]
And here's a male against the backdrop of the Denver skyline, awash in haze
and heat shimmer:
[image: 07 LarB 02.jpg]
Around this time, we realized there was a gaping lacuna on our list, so
Pete & I bopped on over to the Commerce City Police Department, just
outside the refuge, to twitch *Eurasian collared-dove*. The things we do
for you people. And then the obligatory pit stop at the 7-Eleven by the
fortune teller's for Big Gulps of ice cold Hi-C with maximum, really rather
unnatural, reflectivity in the 700-nanometer band, and thenceforth to the
historic & iconic booze shop at Fairfax & 28th, where this guy was about to
fledge:
[image: 08 MiKi 01.jpg]
A *Mississippi kite!* So cool to see this bird—and its doting parents—but
what was perhaps cooler was the cityfolk gathered round to look at the
birds through our scopes.
We wound up with 80+ species at The Arsenal & vicinity, and we somehow
dipped on American robin. And...oh!—It's time to get ready for "Lafayette
Birds!" The event starts at 1pm today, at which time the temp is forecast
to be 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Maybe we'll finally add Mississippi kite to
the Greater Greenlee checklist today? Well, come on out in a bit under a
half-hour and see for yourself!
Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder Co.
P. s. Hm. Seems we've already topped the forecast high.
[image: 09 temp.png]
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