ACES Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch 5/21/2024

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!