ACES Morning Birding at Hallam Lake 01/06/25

This morning felt like the true arrival of winter, with plenty of new snow and the start of the season’s snowpack on the valley floor. Birds were quiet, but our observations were high in What an unusual winter this has been so far! We are all wondering how the mild temperatures and shallow snowpack (or bare ground) are affecting bird behaviors and their wintering strategies. It was fun to go out this morning to see what was happening at Hallam Lake, and while we do not have many answers to these questions, we did make some interesting observations and brought focus to an important online resource for general bird information. It was extra nice to have a few inches of fresh snowfall to freshen things up, and birds were active! We began with mallards in the upper set of ponds, many of whom flew low over our group in twos or threes as they moved to the uppermost pond. We even “ducked” a few times as they seemed to fly so low overhead. This experience gave us great, up-close views of these common birds in flight, and appreciation for their foraging patterns and habitat needs in winter. A juvenile heron hunted in the edges of the wetlands and moved into the main lake to perch in the sun on the beaver lodge. A dipper and a kingfisher were active along the lake shores as we made our way around the short trail loop. A flock of house finches flew over giving flight calls, and Steller’s jays and chickadees called from the trees. Inside, during a warm-up, we explored Cornell’s Birds of the World online resource available through Pitkin County Library. Back outside, we found a Wilson’s snipe and a northern waterthrush in the side channel of the Roaring Fork River. These birds stayed around, giving us long, luxurious looks at them with the scope and a chance to take in their unique behaviors. The waterthrush, which is a species of warbler, is a rare, seasonal migrant through the Aspen area in spring and fall. This same bird (it’s probably safe to presume) was seen a week ago in the same location. A northern waterthrush present here in January is very unusual, and might relate to our exceptionally mild winter – we will leave that to the ornithologists who interpret ebird data. Join us next Tuesday for a mid-winter mid-valley birding field trip to several local habitat sites and a busy feeder location at a private residence!