Morning Birding Species List | September 22, 2015

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Tuesday, September 22, 2015, 7:30AM – 10:30AM
Weather: overcast
Location: Hallam Lake and Aspen Community Garden/Marolt

Species Identified
Mallard Great Blue Heron Red-tailed Hawk Northern Flicker Steller’s Jay Black-billed Magpie American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Mountain Chickadee		White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Song Sparrow Lincoln’s Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Pine Siskin American Goldfinch

Comments:

 

A low-pressure system moved in overnight, giving us a lovely overcast morning with bird activity fitting the conditions: seed-eaters were active, and many insect-eaters were waiting out the weather until sun and warmth re-activates their insect food. A juvenile great blue heron gave us a spectacular flight display followed by stealthy hunting moves in shallow water. It was a good opportunity to study the juvenile’s plumage differences; putting that together with its amateur hunting style, it was exciting to see this young bird getting the hang of independent life. A brown creeper was another highlight, as it foraged head-up on cottonwood trunks. Although relatively quiet in terms of bird voices, we were able to focus on some calls, and foraging chatter alerted us to flocks of goldfinches and pine siskins. Lastly, we touched on a question from a previous session about aggressiveness in hummingbirds outside of breeding season: the answer seems to be that they live on the edge of starvation constantly, thus they are highly motivated to ‘hog up’ food resources where they encounter other hummingbirds year-round in their solitary lifestyle.  Nature never fails to amaze and fascinate us!

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide