Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch 9/28/21

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Tuesday, September 28, 2021, 7:30am-10:30am
Weather: Mostly Cloudy
Location: Rock Bottom Ranch

Fall migrants are still refueling and feeding in areas of rich food resources in the valley, and today we noted orange-crowned and Wilson’s warblers and ruby-crowned kinglets foraging in mountain shrublands and scattered stands of cottonwoods. An adult sora on the far pond and a flock of bushtits along the Rio Grande Trail were special highlights. Ducks are molting into breeding plumage, showing widely varying stages of progress. Starlings are also now in their non-breeding plumage, covered with white spangles. We discussed the hazards of migration and appreciated the long distances flown annually by some of the species we saw. Join us next Tuesday for morning birding at Hallam Lake!

Have you ever wondered how to tell an American Raven from a Common Crow? Here’s a great article from Audubon.org: https://www.audubon.org/news/how-tell-raven-crow 

Species List: 

Mallard
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Sora
Great Blue Heron
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Falcon sp.
Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped Chickadee
White-breasted Nuthatch
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Spotted Towhee
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Orange-crowned Warbler
Wilson’s Warbler

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide

Header photo of Eurasian Collared-Dove by Hari K Patibanda. This image has been cropped.