Morning Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch Species List

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Tuesday, September 29, 2020 7:30AM – 10:30AM
Weather:  Sunny 
Location: Hallam Lake

Species Identified:

Comments:

 

Fall migration and movements continue to bring together birds in loose flocks and pockets of activity in prime habitat.  Highlights from today included more than 40 mountain bluebirds that were perching on fences and other low perches and making short flights to the ground to feed on insects.  We were able to study the variations in plumage colors and intensity of both males and females, noting both grayish and rufous adult females.  In the cattail marsh, we worked to find marsh wrens and that paid off well when we saw at least three.  We were able to gain a sense of how and where to look for marsh wrens.  We learned their key field marks and tuned our ears to hear their grating call notes.  Further back on the ranch, we saw two soras on the pond and discovered that the wet meadows of sedges and rushes were full of Wilson’s snipes.  To our delight, more than a dozen snipes were seen as they foraged and made short flights from one area to the next, some being flushed by our movements as we walked near them unawares.  Snipes are known to concentrate where food is abundant during fall migration.  Join us tomorrow for a birding outing to the lower gorge of the Roaring Fork River at Jaffee Park!

 

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide

Photo by Mark Fuller