ACES Birding Field Class, Exploring the Birdlife of Knapp Ranch | July 19, 2019

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Friday, July 19, 2019, 7AM – 2PM
Weather: Sunny

Species Identified

Canada Goose (with fledged young) Broad-tailed Hummingbird Turkey Vulture Red-tailed Hawk Red-naped Sapsucker (active nest) Northern Flicker (with fledged young) Western Wood-Pewee Dusky Flycatcher (active nest) Cordilleran Flycatcher  Warbling Vireo (with fledged young) Tree Swallow Violet-green Swallow Mountain Chickadee (with fledged young) Brown Creeper House Wren (with fledged young) Ruby-crowned Kinglet (with fledged young) Mountain Bluebird (with fledged young) American Robin (with fledged young) Cedar Waxwing Pine Siskin Green-tailed Towhee Chipping Sparrow Song Sparrow Lincoln’s Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco (with fledged young) Brown-headed Cowbird Orange-crowned Warbler MacGillivray’s Warbler Yellow Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s) (active nest) Wilson’s Warbler Western Tanager

 

Comments:

Knapp Ranch in Edwards, Colorado is a 320-acre private ranch managed for conservation, sustainable agriculture, and other environmentally-conscious projects. At 9,000 feet elevation, its landscape is vegetated with montane and lower subalpine habitats including mountain shrublands, open meadows, aspen groves, conifer forests, riparian and wetland willow stands, and wet meadows, as well as hay pastures and other agricultural land. Native habitats here teem with birds and other wildlife, and on this field trip we were delighted to discover several active nests and many families with newly fledged young birds during the peak of breeding season. Special highlights included watching a dusky flycatcher pair catching and delivering insects to feed their nestlings in a delicately woven cup nest hidden among stems of a chokecherry shrub, red-naped sapsuckers actively foraging to gather food for their brood, MacGillivray’s warblers oblivious to us as they went about their business giving us excellent looks at these birds that normally hide within the foliage of shrubs, and a magnificient red-tailed hawk soaring above the spires of a spruce-fir forest. We observed many delicate moments of adults tending newly-fledged young. We even saw several bats foraging in an insect swarm over the creek in mid-day sunshine along with yellow-rumped warblers taking advantage of the food bonanza. We are grateful for this unique opportunity to explore the birdlife of this special property that is teeming with life and is a wonderful example of land stewardship. Join us next Tuesday for Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch!

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide 

 

Photo by Dale Armstrong