Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch Species List

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Tuesday, August 18, 2020 7:30AM – 10:30AM
Weather:  Sunny with haze from regional wildfires.
Location: Rock Bottom Ranch

Species Identified:

Canada Goose
Mallard
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird
Sandhill Crane
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Cooper’s Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Lewis’s Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Western Wood-Pewee
Say’s Phoebe
Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
House Wren
American Robin
Gray Catbird
Cedar Waxwing
American Goldfinch
Cong Sparrow
Virginia’s Warbler
Yellow Warbler

Comments:

 

Today’s outing at Rock Bottom Ranch was filled with bird activity!  Especially exciting was a flyover of four sandhill cranes.  Additional highlights included a family of Lewis’s woodpeckers that were very active and visible in many places, providing us with excellent opportunities to see their colors, flight style, and behaviors; a young Cooper’s hawk at close range; and a calliope hummingbird perched on a brush pile.  Birds are showing fall dispersal and migration behaviors such as swallows gathering into flocks, many species showing up in habitats and at elevations away from their breeding areas, and geese flying in formation.  Today’s mini-lesson focused on how birds cope with wildfires, in light of the Grizzly Creek fire burning to the north.  Many birds are able to fly to escape wildfires, and some benefit from new spaces and foods in the post-fire landscape; although climate change is causing fires to be more frequent, larger, and more intense.  Historically, bird populations were not affected overall by naturally occurring wildfires, but going forward the norms are rapidly changing and birds will face new challenges as they adapt.  Join us next Tuesday at Hallam Lake!

 

 

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide

Photo by Dale Armstrong