Tuesday Birding at Rock Bottom Ranch 6/27/23

Fledgling season is on! We observed Robins, Red-winged Blackbirds, and Killdeer that had recently left their nests, plus many adult birds making food deliveries to nestlings, including House Wrens and Lewis’s Woodpeckers. A Trumpeter Swan on the pond was an unexpected surprise, likely a member of the small, non-migratory, local population that breeds near Carbondale. An Ash-throated Flycatcher was another surprise, observed foraging in the top of the oak canopy on the hill above Rock Bottom Ranch. This is a bird of very dry pinyon-juniper woodlands which covers the extensive landscape of the “crown” area surrounding the base of Mount Sopris. Join us next week for Morning Birding at Hallam Lake!