Skip to main content

A couple passerines

9 September 2021

I title this post as "a couple passerines" because that's about all there was this fall.  Migration has been abysmal. There have been very few warblers, vireos, sparrows, anything. It's been tough to find much of anything.  I'm very glad that I out some effort into going after a couple more expected migrant warblers, like palm, as everything has been scarce or absent this fall. Maybe we'll get some late fall warblers, but maybe not, thus I'm really pleased that I got what I did this spring. You only need one!

Smoky sunrise

On 8 Sept, local birders found a flock of warblers and a Cassin's vireo at Chatfield State Park. I met Joey Kellner there the next morning and we scoped the lake for an early Sabine's Gull (no dice) and then hit the Plum Creek Delta area to try to find the warbler flock. After a bit of work, we found quite a nice flock of warblers, incl a few Townsend's, and Joey called out "Cassin's Vireo". I need Cassin's! I made another mistake by not standing RIGHT NEXT TO Joey. I was at a vantage to see the tree canopy better as he was looking straight up into the trees and viewing the flock from below. I missed it. The flock had started to wander of. Ugh!! However, I saw some movement to my south in the tree line and I'll be, I got the Cassin's! I saw a bird from the back/underside and knew it wasn't a warbler. Then it looked at me and I saw the sweet white eye ring, big bill, and yellow flanks, and clinched the Cassin's. A few seconds later it flew and I never saw it again. 

What made this bird special was that I had (to date) only seen one Cassin's before in Colorado. It's not THAT rare of a bird, but I just never found or relocated any. It's a strange bird for me in the state. That said, the only Cassin's I'd seen in the state was with Joey Kellner, which was also on the day I met Joe Roller. It seemed quite fitting that I got my green big year Cassin's with Joey! The bird stuck around for a couple days and was photo'd by others.

A Nashville warbler was also reported the day before, but it was decidedly not in that big flock. We walked around the wooded edges and heard a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and saw a lone bird moving in the understory. Joey got on it first and it was the Nashville! I got on it and we high-fived. We got better looks a few minutes later, albeit no photos. It was SWEEEET to get both of those birds for the big year. We had a nice list from the morning, including relocating a Black-throated Gray Warbler, which is a good bird around here, but amazingly I already got one! I guess it shows how good my spring was!

https://ebird.org/checklist/S94412371

After much work over the rest of September, I didn't find or even get to chase any other good passerines. I don't know if it was a slow fall or just a continuation of what seems like a large scale collapse of most passerines since last fall. It has been a tough year for migrant passerines and songbirds in general. 

Totals:
Green Big Year species list: 252 (as of Sept 9)

2021 Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year Species List

Pledge or donate here. Thank you.
https://cobirds.org/CFO/Grants/

Thanks for reading.

Scott

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Big ride for big time green year birds.

First and foremost, thank you for all the pledges and donations! The total pledges so far have been astonishing! Between donations and pledges per species (assuming I hit 250 species), we are about 70% of the way to our $20,000 target! I think Joe would probably roll his eyes and tell a joke about the time we chased what would be his first Arapahoe county Brown Thrasher at Cherry Creek State Park. We saw the thrasher fly away and vanish and then Joe gave me slack for not getting him better looks!   Please consider a tax-deductible donation or pledge per species (pledges do not need to be paid until the 2021 green year ends). The pledges and donations are motivating me to get out and get birds. I'm truly humbled. Thank you. This is going to be such a fun year! Click the link (scroll to the bottom) to pledge or donate!  https://cobirds.org/CFO/Grants/ January 2021 overview (and then the birds!). I thought I'd start off with a little overview of my general strategy for this ...

A sparrow, a sapsucker, and a shrike, oh my!

I've been able to take advantage of dry roads and nice weather lately. I had a couple very successful adventures in the last week and picked up some green avian targets for the year. January 20, 2021 A Harris's Sparrow was frequenting a private residence in Littleton (JeffCo) and despite arriving in the early afternoon, to find no birds anywhere, a flock of White-crowned Sparrows showed up a few minutes later and the Harris's popped up! Talk about luck! I also had taken my camera (a first for a bike ride) and lucked out with a couple decent photos for the blog! A sharp looking Harris's Sparrow! Harris's Sparrow (Green year bird #75) With the grand luck on the Harris's Sparrow, I decided to swing by the ball fields at Kipling and 285 (still in Litteton) to see if there were any Snow Geese around. Not a goose to be found, so I kept going north to Bear Creek Greenbelt to look for either of Winter Wrens that had recently been found between S Estes St and S. Kipling ...

Tis the end of the Green Year

27 January 2022 Well the Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year is over.  As the year was winding down, the reality of the end of this amazing year started to set in. I admit that I was a little bummed that it was coming to an end. Of course, one person said to just do it again 2022 and let's raise more funds for the Roller Grant. HAHA! I'd be sleeping on the couch if I had considered doing that again! I'm also pretty sure my bikes and body (and leave balance at work) wouldn't hold up either! Joking aside, it was a little bit of a downer as the last days of the year came fast like a Peregrine Falcon on a flock of unsuspecting shorebirds. Suddenly the year was over. I've done 98% of my birding on foot or bike from my house since the pandemic began, so I thought the shifting of gears was likely going to be a shock to the system. I think the end of the year snuck up on me because of the "winter" was unseasonably warm with 50 and 60+ degree temperatures, incredibl...