Birding By Habitat: Spring Birding on West Sopris Creek 5/18/22

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Wednesday, May 18, 2022, 7am-12pm
Weather: Sunny
Location: West Sopris Creek

This field trip began at the Emma Schoolhouse and included several sites along West Sopris Creek on the way to Dinkle Lake. The focus was to explore the birdlife of the various habitats in this mountain valley, including cottonwood riparian, sagebrush shrublands, oak mountain shrublands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, grasslands, aspen forest, and montane mixed conifer forest. The patchwork nature of the landscape made bird diversity rich at each location. Highlights included an abundance of Black-throated Gray Warblers, finding an elusive Plumbeous Vireo, excellent views of a pair of tanagers illuminated by sunshine in the forest, and seeing a small flock of Purple Martins which are very uncommon in our region. We learned about the associations of birds with the specific vegetation communities where they breed. Spring peepers in ephemeral ponds near Dinkle Lake were an additional highlight. We concluded the trip at the Cardamone home where we saw Band-tailed Pigeons, Cassin’s Finches, and many more of the day’s bird species. Join us for our next birding outing!

Species List: 

Mallard
Band-tailed Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-naped Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Dusky Flycatcher
Plumbeous Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay
Black-billed Magpie
Common Raven
Purple Martin
Violet-green Swallow
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend’s Solitaire
American Robin
House Sparrow
House Finch
Cassin’s Finch
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
Virginia’s Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Western Tanager
Black-headed Grosbeak

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide

Featured photo: Warbling Vireo