Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch 4/20/22

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Tuesday, April 20, 2022, 8am-11am
Weather: Mostly sunny
Location: Rock Bottom Ranch

Spring is well-underway at RBR with many birds forming pairs, claiming nesting sites, and some already incubating eggs! We watched a robin constructing a nest on the field center’s rafters, kestrels and Lewis’s woodpeckers vying for prime nesting cavities in a dead cottonwood, and spotted townees singing from their territories. Turkeys were gobbling in adjacent pastures, killdeer were calling from vegetable patches, and sapsuckers were drumming on fence posts. Other highlights included the first flycatcher of the birding season, a Say’s phoebe, and the first warbler, a black-throated gray warbler. Today’s mini lesson was identifying a mystery feather: a primary flight feather from a wild turkey found on the shrubby hillside above RBR, and a type of feather that is often confusing because it looks like it could be a hawk’s or owl’s feather because of the mottled pattern. Join us for our next birding outing!

Species List: 

Canada Goose
Mallard
Wild Turkey
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Killdeer
Wilson’s Snipe
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Lewis’s Woodpecker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Say’s Phoebe
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
European Starling
House Finch
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Black-throated Gray Warbler

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide

Photo of Say’s Phoeobe by Renee Grayson.