ACES Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch 05/26/26

Our outing started off with a Bullock’s oriole above us in the cottonwood canopy over the parking lot at RBR. This bird, a first year male, sang and called from various clumps of cottonwoods in the vicinity, getting us to walk back and forth around the trees… we got several marginal glimpses as the oriole flew around, but it was exciting to learn its song and find an old oriole nest from last year! After that flurry, we walked into the ranch property and saw many wild turkeys, a gadwall among a bunch of hybrid domestic-wild mallards, and a family of geese. The day rolled out a constant line up of great species: a killdeer with chick in the agricultural crop area, tree and violet-green swallows looking for nesting holes in the cottonwood galleries, a kingfisher that flew in and perched in good view, and the activity of the Lewis’s woodpecker family around their nest tree. We also got good looks at a female yellow warbler that was flycatching above the water, and two recently-arrived species: a western wood-pewee and a Say’s phoebe. We noted the interesting behaviors and voices of the red-winged blackbirds as they made territorial advances among each other and as they alarmed the approach of our birding group at the far pond. One of our last birds was a gray catbird that sat singing on a dead branch, giving us excellent looks at this normally furtive bird. It was a very birdy morning, filled with great learning! Join us next Tuesday for Morning Birding at Hallam Lake!