ACES Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch 5/21/2024
Rebecca Weiss
May 21, 2024
Tuesday, May 21, 2024, 7:00-10:00am
Weather: Cloudy after a rainy/sunny night
Location: Rock Bottom Ranch, Basalt, CO
Bird behaviors were fascinating today, with nesting season in full swing. We observed a Ruby-crowned kinglet gathering nesting material from the ground just six feet from our group, a Say’s phoebe gathering cobwebs from the eaves of the field center, and Black-capped chickadees picking cattail fluff from last year’s seed heads. We saw a Red-winged blackbird building her nest among the dried cattail leaves in the marsh, and a Red-naped sapsucker pulling twigs out of a tree cavity in the process of possibly evicting a pair of House wrens who were attacking it. Some birds have already fledged their young, including the Killdeers with their two chicks in the vegetable fields. White-crowned sparrows fed on the ground in large flocks, apparently waiting until their breeding habitat in the high country melts out enough. Join us on May 29th for a Pitkin County Open Space/ACES birding outing at North Star Nature Preserve!
Species List:
Canada Goose
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Rock Pigeon
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Lewis’s Woodpecker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Say’s Phoebe
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
House Finch
White-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Bullock’s Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Yellow Warbler
~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide