Date: 9/7/26 4:20 pm From: T Hall <redbear44...> Subject: Re: [cobirds] Digest for - 8 updates in 7 topics
I’ve got one. One might be in wall by our bed
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From: <cobirds...> <cobirds...>
Sent: Monday, 07 September 2026 07:13:30
To: Digest recipients <cobirds...>
Subject: [cobirds] Digest for <cobirds...> - 8 updates in 7 topics
We set out this year to win the Colorado Birding Challenge, and although we
haven't seen every team's results yet, we are fairly confident we succeeded.
For those unaware, the Colorado Birding Challenge operates on a
county-by-county par system. The number of bird species normally expected
in each county this time of year is set as that county's "par," and the
winning team is the one who finds the highest percentage of par.
Last year we ended the day in Clear Creek County with an incredible 162% of
par, but it still wasn't enough to win. In certain counties, the par is...
shall we say... a LITTLE low, and it makes the teams in those counties hard
to beat. We saw the writing on the wall, and this year we went to the
county that was, in our opinion, the most underrated in terms of par:
beautiful Dolores County in southwest Colorado.
Dolores County contains almost every kind of landscape that western
Colorado has to offer. It stretches from low hot desert with Lucy's
Warblers and Gambel's Quail all the way up to alpine tundra with ptarmigan
and rosy-finches. And it has long been my favorite county in the state,
almost criminally neglected by birders and almost everyone else who isn't
in the know, as evidenced by the shockingly low par of just 57 species (!!).
We devised a route that started near the county seat of Dove Creek and
proceeded west to east, low to high. Our first bird, before dawn, was
Common Poorwill, followed by a Great Horned Owl that flew alongside our car
at point blank range for a hundred yards. It was a signal for how our day
would go.
We found 50 species at the Dove Creek sewage ponds, including Nashville
Warbler, Marsh Wren, and a surprising Type 1 Evening Grosbeak (a wandering
individual from the Pacific Northwest). A Purple Martin was a great find at
the 4 and M pond. Some species we thought we'd missed at low elevation
popped up in the high country, including Western Kingbird and Black Phoebe.
We had set an ambitious but very doable goal of 100 species, and when it
became clear we would blow past that mark, we started aiming for 114
species, 200% of our par. When THAT milestone fell with two hours of
daylight remaining, we decided to aim for 120, which came in the form of an
amazing flock of about a dozen Pine Grosbeaks feeding on Green Gentians (an
amazing plant that takes 40 years to flower and is experiencing a
superbloom in the Rockies this year). After full dark, we continued on to
see if we could replicate last year's feat of ending with a Boreal Owl. We
succeeded.
121 species for the day.
Folks, that's 212% of par.
In the end, we didn't find any ridiculous rarities, but we also didn't miss
too many expected birds except for our namesake dippers and, incredibly,
Canada Goose. It was an astonishing day with perfect weather in one of the
greatest places on Earth.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my excellent teammates (Luke Pheneger, Brian
Genge, and Pablo Quezada) and especially to our many donors, all of whom
will receive a personal thank-you in the next few days with a picture of
the individual bird from our big day that we named in their honor. If you
want a bird named after YOU, it's not too late to donate at
https://charity.pledgeit.org/2026COBC/teams/dippers !
Thanks to everyone at Colorado Field Ornithologists who organized this fun
event for the benefit of birds and their habitats. Hope to see you again
next year.
We absolutely had THE BEST DAY for birding and the adventure was so much
fun! Our all women team has completed the COBC in Jackson County each of
the last 3 years, progressively getting better each year. We've honed our
route, improved our timing for specific stops and have found new hidden
gems. This year we went all out in our bid to be the top team (2nd place
the last two years) by renting a VRBO, scouting all day Friday and coming
up with the best plan for Saturday. The execution was as flawless as the
weather and the beauty that is our Colorado Rocky Mountains.
We started at the Walden Reservoir at 6am sharp and ticked almost all our
expected duck species along with the other familiar residents like Sandhill
Cranes, White-faced Ibis and American White Pelicans. As we were leaving
we noticed a tree just between the water and the edge of the road that was
full of warblers, among them was 1 of the three Townsand's Warblers we
would see on the day. As we left, the raptors were starting to make their
appearance, including a hunting Prairie Falcon who made a very close
flyby! Those birds are so fast!
By 9:00am we were riding high as we hit 77 species, breaking par for the
county! As we made our way down the Ditch Road on the Arapaho National
Wildlife Refuge, we encountered not one, but two, covies of Greater Sage
Grouse! This species has eluded us the previous two years as well as on
the prior day's scouting trip. We stayed and savored the time we had with
these beautiful birds, taking video and photos and allowing them to enjoy
the road for as long as they wished. Our next stop brought us to
Moose-Goose Nature Trail which was exceptionally dry save for the main
channel which had some water. We tallied a Sora who was gracious enough to
show himself, much to our delight.
Next we "bombed" it down to Rand where we stopped in the store and stocked
up on sweet treats to keep us going. County Rd 27 never misses as the
climb to the junction with HWY 14 brings habitat change and new species for
the day. Mountain Bluebirds on every wire, flocks of sparrows and surprise
Great Blue Heron in a cattle pond. In order to add to our
already impressive total, we needed to get to the mountain birds, so we
headed for the State Forest State Park Moose Visitor Center. They had
their feeders out and we quickly added Cassin's Finch, Steller's Jay, Green
Tailed Towhee and a Fox Sparrow to the list. We enjoyed a break and some
lunch at Ranger Lakes adding a few more birds. Several Canada Jays were
spotted with Cheetos, allegedly stolen from nearby guests enjoying the
holiday weekend.
By noon we were at 93 species and speculating on which species would have
the honor of being 100. Our next stop is the pinnacle of our route each
year, Lake Agnes. We found many warblers fueling up for their journey,
including the other two Townsand's of the day. We also found our 100th
species, appropriately, the Golden Crowned Kinglet! We also heard and
spotted the elusive American Three-Toed Woodpecker. I think we can all
appreciate that birding is as much, if not more, about appreciating the
behavior of birds. Irene and I had the most amazing experience while
photographing two very hungry hatch year Juncos. Just above our head and
below the tree line came a rush of air and the sound of strong wing beats.
Irene looked up just in time to see the silhouette of the wing and tail of
a predator which was quickly confirmed by the alarm calls from Clark's
Nutcrackers in every part of the forest. We watched as at least twenty
CLNUs flew to the scree field above the American Lakes Trail, calling and
gathering in the trees for safety. As more arrived, they flocked up and
took to the sky, clearing the ridge line and flying out of sight. After
much conversation and review of the events and eyewitness statements, an
American Goshawk was added to the list! Could this day get any better?
Our stop at North Michigan Creek Reservoir found us battling the noise of
four-wheelers and side-by-sides, but we were able to tally some new birds
for the day, including a scolding McGillivary's Warbler and a Cassin's
Vireo, a lifer for both Adriana and myself! As we realized that time was
ticking and we had hopes of getting to the Loop at Arapaho NWR, we opted to
beat feet to our next stop. A quick look at Meadow Creek Reservoir did not
yield the Willson's Phalarope that had been there the day before, but
instead held a different surprise. We knew that CONI was on our list for
later in the evening, but had we not stopped here, we may have missed them
entirely! There was a kettle of at least 40 Common Nighthawks coursing
through the sky, rounding up their kin and presumably preparing for a trip
south that evening! It was magical and we did take time to wonder at their
aerial choreography, but not too long as the sun would soon be setting!
We found the Wildlife Loop Road to be in better shape than last year,
although the drought has certainly left its mark here, as it has with our
whole State. Our next big find was on one of the two bodies of water that
held a massive number of waterfowl. The sharp eye, and keen avian
knowledge that is Carly Crow, picked a hybrid American Wigeon X Eurasian
Wigeon out of all those birds! She carefully documented with digiscope
photos and quickly reached out for others to weigh in on the find. By the
next morning, she felt we had the supporting evidence we needed to add this
to our list! Just after she photographed the bird and we all had our looks
at the rare duck, the first BAEA of the day swooped in looking for a quick
meal and flushed all those birds! Nature in action once again. As a side
note, we determined by this point that North Park in general must have had
a mass exodus of shorebirds just days before our event as we found a
pitiful few shorebird species.
Our final planned stop was back to where it all started, Walden Reservoir,
where we finally found our Wilson's Phalarope. With just a bit of light
left, we found ourselves unable to "stop" birding (if there is such a
thing) and we searched the town of Walden for anything new we could find.
We spent a good 10 minutes tracking a warbler that was a great candidate
for Nashville, but we couldn't get a good enough look to confirm, so he
will migrate without having been added to our list. Safe travels little
one!
The last bird of the day was the unassuming and oddly rare Rock Pigeon. We
truly did look for this bird all day and couldn't believe we hadn't seen
one till the very end. Thanks for keeping us humble.
Our team was beaming as we sat down to a chili dinner and celebratory
beverages and recounted the day. We had so much fun and so many amazing
moments that will stay with us always. Birding competition and fundraising
aside, being able to spend the day with smart and amazing humans and
appreciate the beauty in our natural world made this an extraordinary and
memorable day.
Happy Birding,
Irene, Kristin, Carly and Adriana...... aka The Flock Finders
Buzz Schaumberg <egseagle171...>: Sep 07 03:12AM
Love it! Great report on the birds and the traveling
Sent from the all new Aol app for iOS
Buzz Schaumberg
On Sunday, September 6, 2026, 7:28 PM, Kristin Tallis <pkris0...> wrote:
Flock Finders Report Out for COBC 2026 -
We absolutely had THE BEST DAY for birding and the adventure was so much fun! Our all women team has completed the COBC in Jackson County each of the last 3 years, progressively getting better each year. We've honed our route, improved our timing for specific stops and have found new hidden gems. This year we went all out in our bid to be the top team (2nd place the last two years) by renting a VRBO, scouting all day Friday and coming up with the best plan for Saturday. The execution was as flawless as the weather and the beauty that is our Colorado Rocky Mountains.
We started at the Walden Reservoir at 6am sharp and ticked almost all our expected duck species along with the other familiar residents like Sandhill Cranes, White-faced Ibis and American White Pelicans. As we were leaving we noticed a tree just between the water and the edge of the road that was full of warblers, among them was 1 of the three Townsand's Warblers we would see on the day. As we left, the raptors were starting to make their appearance, including a hunting Prairie Falcon who made a very close flyby! Those birds are so fast!
By 9:00am we were riding high as we hit 77 species, breaking par for the county! As we made our way down the Ditch Road on the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge, we encountered not one, but two, covies of Greater Sage Grouse! This species has eluded us the previous two years as well as on the prior day's scouting trip. We stayed and savored the time we had with these beautiful birds, taking video and photos and allowing them to enjoy the road for as long as they wished. Our next stop brought us to Moose-Goose Nature Trail which was exceptionally dry save for the main channel which had some water. We tallied a Sora who was gracious enough to show himself, much to our delight.
Next we "bombed" it down to Rand where we stopped in the store and stocked up on sweet treats to keep us going. County Rd 27 never misses as the climb to the junction with HWY 14 brings habitat change and new species for the day. Mountain Bluebirds on every wire, flocks of sparrows and surprise Great Blue Heron in a cattle pond. In order to add to our already impressive total, we needed to get to the mountain birds, so we headed for the State Forest State Park Moose Visitor Center. They had their feeders out and we quickly added Cassin's Finch, Steller's Jay, Green Tailed Towhee and a Fox Sparrow to the list. We enjoyed a break and some lunch at Ranger Lakes adding a few more birds. Several Canada Jays were spotted with Cheetos, allegedly stolen from nearby guests enjoying the holiday weekend.
By noon we were at 93 species and speculating on which species would have the honor of being 100. Our next stop is the pinnacle of our route each year, Lake Agnes. We found many warblers fueling up for their journey, including the other two Townsand's of the day. We also found our 100th species, appropriately, the Golden Crowned Kinglet! We also heard and spotted the elusive American Three-Toed Woodpecker. I think we can all appreciate that birding is as much, if not more, about appreciating the behavior of birds. Irene and I had the most amazing experience while photographing two very hungry hatch year Juncos. Just above our head and below the tree line came a rush of air and the sound of strong wing beats. Irene looked up just in time to see the silhouette of the wing and tail of a predator which was quickly confirmed by the alarm calls from Clark's Nutcrackers in every part of the forest. We watched as at least twenty CLNUs flew to the scree field above the American Lakes Trail, calling and gathering in the trees for safety. As more arrived, they flocked up and took to the sky, clearing the ridge line and flying out of sight. After much conversation and review of the events and eyewitness statements, an American Goshawk was added to the list! Could this day get any better?
Our stop at North Michigan Creek Reservoir found us battling the noise of four-wheelers and side-by-sides, but we were able to tally some new birds for the day, including a scolding McGillivary's Warbler and a Cassin's Vireo, a lifer for both Adriana and myself! As we realized that time was ticking and we had hopes of getting to the Loop at Arapaho NWR, we opted to beat feet to our next stop. A quick look at Meadow Creek Reservoir did not yield the Willson's Phalarope that had been there the day before, but instead held a different surprise. We knew that CONI was on our list for later in the evening, but had we not stopped here, we may have missed them entirely! There was a kettle of at least 40 Common Nighthawks coursing through the sky, rounding up their kin and presumably preparing for a trip south that evening! It was magical and we did take time to wonder at their aerial choreography, but not too long as the sun would soon be setting!
We found the Wildlife Loop Road to be in better shape than last year, although the drought has certainly left its mark here, as it has with our whole State. Our next big find was on one of the two bodies of water that held a massive number of waterfowl. The sharp eye, and keen avian knowledge that is Carly Crow, picked a hybrid American Wigeon X Eurasian Wigeon out of all those birds! She carefully documented with digiscope photos and quickly reached out for others to weigh in on the find. By the next morning, she felt we had the supporting evidence we needed to add this to our list! Just after she photographed the bird and we all had our looks at the rare duck, the first BAEA of the day swooped in looking for a quick meal and flushed all those birds! Nature in action once again. As a side note, we determined by this point that North Park in general must have had a mass exodus of shorebirds just days before our event as we found a pitiful few shorebird species.
Our final planned stop was back to where it all started, Walden Reservoir, where we finally found our Wilson's Phalarope. With just a bit of light left, we found ourselves unable to "stop" birding (if there is such a thing) and we searched the town of Walden for anything new we could find. We spent a good 10 minutes tracking a warbler that was a great candidate for Nashville, but we couldn't get a good enough look to confirm, so he will migrate without having been added to our list. Safe travels little one!
The last bird of the day was the unassuming and oddly rare Rock Pigeon. We truly did look for this bird all day and couldn't believe we hadn't seen one till the very end. Thanks for keeping us humble.
Our team was beaming as we sat down to a chili dinner and celebratory beverages and recounted the day. We had so much fun and so many amazing moments that will stay with us always. Birding competition and fundraising aside, being able to spend the day with smart and amazing humans and appreciate the beauty in our natural world made this an extraordinary and memorable day.
Happy Birding,Irene, Kristin, Carly and Adriana...... aka The Flock Finders
Mount Zion Hawk Watch at Windy Saddle Park
Golden, Greater Denver, Colorado, USA
To see hourly weather data and details of migrant raptors, look up this watch at hawkcount.org.
This is a new raptor migration site identified and designated in mid-September 2024. This is Colorado's 1st fall hawk watch site, and the second hawk watch in Colorado.
To get to the site which is along Lookout Mountain Rd. in Golden, enter either Windy Saddle Park or Mount Zion into Google Maps on your favorite navigation app, or enter the coordinates 39.7368,-105.2454. From the parking lot ascend the stone steps to the watch site.
EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO THE HAWK WATCH TO ENJOY THE SPECTACLE OF RAPTOR MIGRATION, EVEN IF YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT IDENTIFYING RAPTORS IN FLIGHT. We will help you to learn Raptor ID if you are interested.
See https://groups.google.com/g/cobirds/c/Oznn4uc6MBk
Observation start time: 08:15:00
Observation end time: 13:00:00
Total observation time: 4.75 hours
Official Counter: Ajit Antony
Observers: Liza Antony, Robert Hill
Visitors:
Robert Hill a geologist from Westminster read our reports on COBirds and
had wanted to come up for the past few weeks, and finally our mention of
Kirstin Chapman who's kestrels he has gone to and visited, made his
decision to come up this morning to the watch. He was able to find us some
hawks to the north which turned out to be non-migrants, but continuing to
look in that area we were able to find 3 CH migrants. We were able to show
him how to make out a juvenile RT even at a great distance from the
translucent rectangular windows just inside the wing tips, and he began
identifying them with his binoculars and scope.
Being an extrovert Robert was very comfortable interacting with the many
hikers who asked us numerous questions about hawk watching, hawk watches,
Hawkcount, HMA, the flocking behavior of BW and SW on migration, our
binoculars and scopes, thermal formation and thermal used by raptors, that
there is an even larger migration at night of passerines. We showed a few
hikers TVs perched on the antennas on Lookout Mountain, including once
allowing a couple to look through his binoculars. A woman wanted to know
when we see cranes, and I suggested using the Merlin app with the bar
graphs. The comments we got from hikers were Cool and Super cool at what we
were doing.
Weather:
There was much more Wildfire smoke over and around Denver compared to this
past week which Limited clear visibility initially to 6 km going to 19 km
in the 10:00 MST hour and 20 km only by the last hour. There were cirrus
and cumulus clouds to the East and a huge high cirrus cloud to the South,
light winds from the East.
Raptor Observations:
The first migrant was an RT over the middle of Lookout Mountain going south
at 9:39 a.m. DST.
Today's highlight was 2 juvenile Cooper's Hawks which came low from the
north, dove on each other repeatedly, circled the watch 40 ft away, and
then a scant 15 ft from us. Beautiful. Likely from the same nest.
Non-migrant raptors: CH 1, RT 3, TV 5.
Non-raptor Observations:
WBNU Eastern subspecies heard! WTSW 5, STJA 2, MOCH 1, BTHU 1, CORA 2.
19 paragliders, the initial ones at 10:00 a.m. DST had no lift and stayed
well below us over golden while the ones an hour later had moderate left
doing a little above our level while the ones who went up at noon had
tremendous lift going really high and soaring far to the North as well as
the South where they couldn't be even seen with the naked eye. The Soaring
Forecast of the NWS predicted lift at 18 ft per second with a maximum
thermal height of 12,081 ft AGL, a mile above the watch. That's how high
raptors could fly at!
Predictions:
A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm. Mostly cloudy,
with a high near 87. West-southwest wind around 6 mph becoming light and
variable.
========================================================================
Report submitted by Ajit Antony (<aiantony...>)
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please send email to <unsubscribe...> to unsubscribe.
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Bird Conservancy of the Rockies - Barr Lake Banding Report, 9/6/26 <http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds/t/140d4f47e1425de1?utm_source=digest&utm_medium=email> Meredith McBurney <Meredith.McBurney...>: Sep 06 05:38PM -0700
We finished week 2 with the slowest day of the season, banding only 16
birds. Until the last couple of days, our total numbers have been close to
2020, our busiest year ever. Looking at the difference between the two
years for these last few days, it appears that species other than WIWAs
were starting to move through in greater numbers. Although temps on this
day in 2020 were in the 90's, the first snowstorm of the season hit the
next day! That's not in tomorrow's forecast, and it appears that the heat
is going to continue for awhile.
Here's today's 16 new birds:
Rock Wren 1 (FOS)
Northern House Wren 2
Swainson's Thrush 1
Wilson's Warbler 9
Chipping Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Lincoln's Sparrow 1
One of the reasons I joined CFO is because I truly love birding in
different habitats within this beautiful state of ours. Fremont county did
not disappoint. I was a solo crew –choosing to do the Bird-Your-Own-Way
category.
My morning started in the hills north of Cotopaxi pre-dawn with all of the
western mountain jays and hummers and both Dusky (singing) and Gray
(dipping) Flycatchers. I had a baker’s dozen of spots for the COBC, mostly
along the Arkansas River, and two spots that I did twice. Just north of
the Vallie Recreation site had a surprise of Evening Grosbeak finding shade
with a Red-naped Sapsucker and my only Western Tanager of the day.
By midday, the heat made my favorite warbler stop from 2025 in Swissdale
too hot for much of anything but the Rock Wrens representing Troglodytidae
for the day, but all in all, there were lots of great surprises like
Williamson’s Sapsucker and my final (and by then most wanted
species)–Juniper Titmouse.
I didn’t think I would come close to the par of 75 because I was in
Arkansas River valley (away from the hotspots near Canon City) –but I came
in spitting distance with 74 species. Of course, it’s birding, so I wasn’t
surprised to get 5 more species I couldn’t count early the next day,
including a gorgeous Northern Goshawk telling me to come on back to Fremont
before too long!
Well, maybe not a full-on, old-fashioned ass-walloping, but there were some
challenges. Dove hunting season for one. Prewitt Reservoir was as busy as
Times Square with camouflaged shotgunners stalking every field, fenceline
and forest. The near-constant bang-bang-bangs kept birds and birders on
edge.
Heat was another factor, though more for us birders than the birds I
suspect. Water levels at the reservoir were quite low, necessitating a
1/2-mile slog on baked mud to reach the birds.
Once in place, we had a great time sorting through large shorebird flocks,
with high numbers of Stilt and Pectoral Sandpipers, but surprisingly few
peeps and no dowitchers. We managed to hear a single Greater Yellowlegs and
one Black-bellied Plover thanks to Carl Bendorf's acute hearing.
We dipped on Red-winged Blackbird! Nearly missed Bald Eagle until a
sharp-eyed Gary Witt noticed an all-brown first year bird pretending to be
a Golden Eagle.
Later in the day it was heat shimmer that made identifying distant ducks a
challenge.
Our penultimate species of the day was special. We drove home through the
town of Akron, population 1,722, founded as a railroad camp in 1882 and
today the Washington County seat. Our hope was to see a Mississippi Kite.
We cruised past the small City Park that was full of kids playing in the
godawful heat. But no birds.
A few blocks beyond the park we stopped when we heard what turned out to be
a wailing juvenile kite perched in a snag. Soaring above, its parents were
doing their best to feed their starving child. We stopped to take some
photos and were fortunate to see one adult swoop in with a fresh dragonfly.
A woman emerged from the house next door and asked in an earnest whisper,
"Are you birders?"
"Why, yes ma'am, we sure are!" No, I didn't say that, but I may have
thought it. Anyway, I began to explain that we were looking at a
Mississippi Kite, but she already knew that because she had downloaded the
Merlin app and had been watching this family raise their chick all summer.
She did appreciate the scope views though.
We ended our day with a solid, below-par 69 species. As we brainstormed a
list of all the easy birds we had failed to see, a lone Turkey Vulture
floated by, raising our final tally to an even 70. At least we didn't dip
on Turkey Vulture!
Thanks to all our generous donors! Carl, Gary and I had a great time
walloping in Washington County!
The birds continue to come in slow but steady at the Chatfield station,
providing nice diversity and some fun surprises. We banded 51 new birds of
14 species, had 12 return birds from previous seasons, and recaptured 16
same-season birds. Our most exciting return bird was a female Yellow
Warbler who was originally banded in the spring of 2022 and had not been
caught again since.
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