August 23, 2009 [LINK / comment]
Road Trip 2009: The Birds of August
It had been several years since the last time I was in the Rocky Mountains, and I made the best use of my brief time in Colorado two weeks ago with two day-long visits to the upper elevations. Perhaps the most unusual bird I saw was the Three-toed woodpecker, which was, coincidentally, reported in this area just last month. (False alarm.) Altogther I saw nine (9) life birds during my trip, all of them in Colorado. I have updated my Life Bird List accordingly, making a few small corrections to the previous annual totals. I managed to get a fair number of decent photos, which are previewed below; see the Birds of August photo gallery page. My life total now stands at 398.
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: Great egret, Bushtit, Red-breasted nuthatch, Clark's nutcracker, Gray-headed junco, Yellow-rumped warbler, Three-toed woodpecker, Mountain bluebird, Bald eagle, and in the center, Mountain chickadee. CLICK ON that image to see the full-size photos of these and other birds.
Magee Marsh, Ohio
My first birding stop was at Magee Marsh (see photo 
), in Ohio, where the Augusta Bird Club had made a very successful long-distance field trip last May; I was unable to attend, unfortunately. It is renowned as a stopover point for thousands of warblers and other neotropical migrants every spring. It happens to be adjacent to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, which Jacqueline and I visited a few years ago. Here are the highlights:
- Yellow warblers
- Indigo buntings
- Catbirds
- Kingbirds
- Purple martins
- Red-wing blackbirds
- Great egret
- Bald eagles
- Warbling vireo
S.E. South Dakota
I didn't spend much time in South Dakota on this trip, and with one exception, the following "highlights" were thus rather ordinary:
- Kingbirds
- Flickers
- Killdeers
- Nighthawks (FIRST OF SEASON)
The Rockies, Colorado
The terrain and habitat in Colorado is extremely varied, and most of the birds listed below are restricted to either the highlands or the lowlands. All nine of the "life birds" were seen on Monday, August 10 at Brainerd Lake (see photo 
). It is located about 20 miles northwest of Boulder, at an elevation of about 10,500 feet, near the town of Ward. Later that day, I stopped at Hall Ranch, southwest of Lyons, and was surprised to see a number of interesting grassland-dwelling species. On Tuesday morning, I walked around Walden Ponds, a nature preserve northeast of Boulder. It quickly became very hot, however, and I would have seen more birds if I had begun earlier in the day. On Wednesday, my father and I drove through Rocky Mountain National Park (see photo 
), stopping frequently at the scenic overlooks on the way up to the Alpine Visitor Center, our destination. I saw a few more bird species along the way, but none of the tundra-dwelling Ptarmigans, unfortunately. Because there was so much overlap from one location to the next, I just decided to lump them all together in the list below. I have included ordinary species that are routinely seen in the east, but one might not expect to see in such a different habitat. Besides the first-ever sightings ("life birds") I have indicated which species I had not seen for several years, of which there were [twelve] altogether. Here is the combined list, in rough chronological order; click on the camera icons (
) to see a photo:
- Broad-tailed hummingbird (LIFE BIRD) *
- Mountain chickadees
- Black-capped chickadees
- Blue jays
- American Goldfinches
- Lark sparrows (FIRST IN YEARS)
- Red-tailed hawks
- Pygmy nuthatch (LIFE BIRD)
- Robins
- House finches
- Mourning doves
- Eurasian collared doves (FIRST IN YEARS)
- Common grackles
- Kestrel
- Red-shafted flicker (FIRST IN YEARS) #
- Chipping sparrows
- Bushtit (LIFE BIRD)
- Eastern kingbirds
- Western meadowlark (FIRST OF YEAR)
- Sage thrasher (LIFE BIRD)
- Steller's jays (FIRST IN YEARS)
- Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) warblers (FIRST IN YEARS) #
- Three-toed woodpecker (LIFE BIRD)
- Red-breasted nuthatches (FIRST OF YEAR)
- Dark-eyed "Gray-headed" juncos (FIRST IN YEARS) #
- Gray jays (FIRST IN YEARS)
- Pine grosbeak (LIFE BIRD)
- Brown-capped rosy-finch (prob. - LIFE BIRD)
- Ruby-crowned kinglets
- House wren
- Hermit thrush
- Wilson's warblers (A, J)
- White-crowned sparrows
- Mountain bluebirds (M, F) *
- Spotted towhee (M) (FIRST IN YEARS) #
- Western kingbirds (FIRST IN YEARS)
- Juniper titmouse (LIFE BIRD)
- Lark bunting (LIFE BIRD) *
- Lesser goldfinches (FIRST IN YEARS)
- Cedar waxwings
- Yellow warblers
- Great blue herons
- Double-crested cormorants
- Killdeers
- Belted kingfisher
- Barn swallows
- Cliff swallows
- Black-billed magpies (FIRST IN YEARS)
- Clark's nutcrackers (FIRST IN YEARS)
* (asterisk): Bird species that I had probably seen before, but was not certain.
# : Subspecies of birds that are common in the East.
Platte River, Nebraska
Driving across Nebraska can be rather dull, but birders know that millions of Sandhill cranes congregate along the Platte River every year during spring migration. So, late on Thursday afternoon, August 13, I decided to take an exit from I-80 near the town of Alden where a nature center (see photo 
) is located, and it was wonderful. Highlights:
- Red-wing blackbirds
- American Goldfinches
- Sharp-shinned hawk (prob.)
- Warbling vireo
- Eastern Kingbird
- Swainson's hawk (FIRST IN YEARS)
- Wild turkeys (F, 4 J)
In sum, it was a very successful trip in terms of bird-watching, but I wish I had had more time to spend at some of the places I passed by. Maybe next time...