Morning Birding Species List | September 24, 2019

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Tuesday, September 24, 2019, 7:30AM – 10:30AM
Weather: Mostly sunny
Location: Hallam Lake and Aspen Community Garden

Species Identified

Mallard Black-chinned Hummingbird Broad-tailed Hummingbird Northern Flicker Western Wood-Pewee Steller’s Jay Black-billed Magpie American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Mountain Chickadee White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper American Dipper Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Cedar Waxwing House Finch Red Crossbill Pine Siskin Lesser Goldfinch Chipping Sparrow Song Sparrow Lincoln’s Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Yellow-rumped Warbler

 

Comments:

Today’s mini lesson mentioned the recent scientific study revealing the loss of 3 billion North American birds since 1970, an indication of the unraveling of the fabric of our ecosystems on a large scale. We also looked at a report describind the discovery of a small group of Nordman’s Greenshanks in a remote larch forest in Russia, a species once thought to be extinct. At Hallam Lake, mixed flocks of migratory songbirds were observed moving through shrubby, food-rich habitat patches.  Western Wood-Pewees and Cedar Waxwings were hawking airborne insects on the sunny side of the late, as they have been for the past several weeks. We expect the pewees to leave any day on their southward migration. Highlights at the community garden were a black-chinned hummingbird and several broad-tailed hummingbirds which we were able to observe at close range. The Lesser Goldfinches and the several species of sparrows there gave us opportunities to study their unique field marks. Today’s group was mainly first-time birders and we enjoyed focusing our learning on binoculars use and field craft. Fall is a great time to discover birding! Join us next Tuesday at Hallam Lake, 8am – 11am, and note our bonus October Morning Birding outing at Rock Bottom Ranch on October 15th. See you then!

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide 

 

Photo by Dale Armstrong