Fall Birding on Capitol Creek 09/17/26

With longer bouts of rain finally coming to our area, we were thrilled to don our Goretex and jellies for this outing at the historic Circle M ranch on Capitol Creek, a private property with a patchwork of amazing habitat areas. The ranch owners accompanied us and provided stories about the ranch and its rich history beginning as a homesteaded parcel in 1888 by the owner’s grandfather. Birds abounded everywhere, from the ranch compound and driveway to the riparian spruce forest and shale bluffs. Right away, we saw a kestrel and red-winged blackbirds on utility wires, as well as a variety of sparrows on the driveway and open ground. Steller’s and Woodhouse’s scrub-jays came to the house feeders, and magpies patrolled the perimeter. We walked to the portion of the ranch on the Capitol Creek side of the road, entering on a ranch road paralleling an irrigation ditch. Thickets of oak and serviceberry harbored warblers, sparrows, and other songbirds. We walked in a large loop, birding our way around the edges of a hay meadow bordered by willows and the creek riparian corridor with towering shale bluffs above. Looking at the capstone layer on the bluffs, we found the cliff swallow nests beneath an overhang, ready for the swallows’ return next spring. Mixed flocks of sparrows, juncos, finches, and nuthatches foraged in openings on seedbeds, flitting to take cover in surrounding trees. As the rain stopped and the sky brightened, we enjoyed excellent observations of red-breasted nuthatches, brown creepers, and MacGillivray’s warblers as these birds became very active and vocal. Another pocket of birds was found along the irrigation ditch, where willows on both sides provided perches and hiding cover for many Wilson’s warblers and western wood-pewees that were fly catching in the air space above the ditch. The warblers used aquatic plants as a surface to walk on the water, finding other goodies to eat. We were thrilled with the perfect lighting conditions and extended views of these birds that are normally difficult to see well. Additional highlights included a mountain cottontail, actively bugling elk in the distance, and a glimpse of a gray fox crossing the shale ridge. Join us next week at Ranch at Roaring Fork for more exciting fall birding!