Week three and last days in Colorado this trip
Day 20, Friday, February 1st
First thing today the American Robin was still about. It was again unearthing crab apples beside the driveway in the front garden.
Insert pictures here
This morning Tracey, James and I set off for another visit to the zoo in Denver. It opens at 10:00am so it was not necessary to leave until about 09:30. We spent 4 hours wandering about those parts we did not get to see well the last time and we had lunch. James was again fascinated by the penguins. He wanted to revisit the bats at the Tropical Discovery hall and he enjoyed watching a crowded pond-full of waterfowl at the end of the day. I took some more pictures, mostly of subjects that I had not seen on the last visit. There were still many Canada Geese in the park and indeed also within the zoo grounds with the following additional collars noted amongst the later. All had green collars. A5E3; A4E0; A7E4 and A4E[3 possibly 7?]. I have photographs of them all but the last one is uncertain because neck feathers partly obscure the last number. Also seen today were wild Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, 3-4 Hooded Merganser along with a few Mallard on Duck Lake in the Park but outside the zoo perimeter. There was a large number of Mallard, predominantly drakes, on three of the ponds within the zoo grounds. Again, I noted that none of the duck Mallard had marked tertials although most were showing signs of wing moult in that region. It seems to me that in the Mallard the duck has plain tertials while in basic plumage, assuming such a plumage is the pre-breeding feathering equivalent to the eclipse feathering of drakes. I am not sure this is the accepted interpretation given by most authorities but I would venture to say that they might have got it wrong. Whatever, it was clear today that duck tertials in these Mallard were plain coloured. Drake Mallard were uniformly immaculate. I suspect that ducks were about to acquire fully the alternate (breeding) plumage but were lagging some time behind the drakes in this respect. They would presumably acquire fresh body feathering as close as possible to the time of laying and incubating. At that time they also need to pluck feathers and down for nest lining. Some drake-to-drake interactions were seen (mainly introductory shakes and down-ups) and a little male display (including occasional grunt-whistles) was noted, mostly in response to inciting behaviour by a few of the ducks. Ducks called with decrescendo calls a few times and, on being alarmed, a wave of soft raahbs, uttered by drakes, would sweep through the flock. Speaking of responses, another amusing observation was that of the two Red-crowned Crane that seemed to bugle loudly, in typical crane tones, as a response to the equally loud bugling of two Trumpeter Swan; the later sounding awfully like the noise made by an old fashioned car horn - honk-honk!
Insert pictures here
At the far southern end of the Baseline Lake, on the way home, we came across 30-40 American Crow in some cottonwood trees alongside Cherryvale Road. I had not seen that many together before on this trip.
Late this afternoon a surprising number of birds was seen in the back garden, mostly at the new bird feeders installed a day or so ago. At least 20+ House Finch, 5+ Dark-eyed Junco and a few Black-capped Chickadee came to the feeders and a Black-billed Magpie and a Norther Flicker also showed up. We are hoping that the Downy Woodpecker will soon make an appearance at one of the bird feeders! Fondue night at home!
Day 21, Saturday, February 2nd
A Black-capped Chickadee was very close to coming to the new feeder in the front garden early this morning. Three to four European Starling have started to feed on the crab apples as they thaw out of the small pile in the front garden - a pile so far only exploited by an American Robin (who was nowhere to be seen today). Otherwise, we saw Dark-eyed Junco and House Finch in the back yard and the House finches were again at the feeder. A Black-billed Magpie was seen and also this morning, for the first time, a Downy Woodpecker came in to the suet at the new feeder in the back garden.
Later in the morning we drove up to Nederland in the mountains east of Boulder. We headed up to about 8000' along the Boulder Canyon Drive which is an extension of Arapahoe Avenue. We had lunch at a very odd cafe served by a 'confessed' web designer who was having difficulties coming to grips with serving in a cafe! She had three attempts to heat up a slice of pizza for me without toasting it to a frazzle! Almost nothing in the way of wild life seen except a possible jay in Nederland. Barker Lake alongside the town was solid frozen. Very light snow began to fall so we returned to Boulder and headed to the North Face Shop and a nearly toy store. Opposite was the Daphne's Cafe! The only addition in town was Feral Pigeon.
Insert pictures here
I take a walk with Alice the dog in the late afternoon and during a hour or so walking the Bobolink trail southwards I certainly saw more biomass than of late. Lots of skeins of Canada Geese were blogging about. Often the geese were in pairs, even in the flocks, but more obviously as they passed as two birds together. They seemed more noisy than ever, honking loudly as they came overhead. Some 500-1000 birds must have been in the area late this afternoon. They were feeding in the fields or moving about from place to place. Also seen were several Northern Flicker, perhaps a total of four, a solitary Ring-billed Gull heading towards Baseline Lake, a Black-billed Magpie and several groups of Red-winged Blackbird. These blackbirds numbered all-up about 50 individuals with some starting to display by extending their red epaulettes while giving snippets of their scratchy song. A few were flying out into the fields with dense patches of Teazel and seemed to take up territorial advertising with as yet feeble song and display. I think at this stage in the season the wing coverts are not that fully developed nor fully coloured on these blackbirds. The other interesting thing to note was that European Starling seemed to form mixed flocks with the blackbirds. A Red-tailed Hawk and a pair of Mallard completed the list. A better tally of species and certainly more individuals than I have seen here recently.
Insert pictures here
[ next entry ]
First thing today the American Robin was still about. It was again unearthing crab apples beside the driveway in the front garden.
Insert pictures here
This morning Tracey, James and I set off for another visit to the zoo in Denver. It opens at 10:00am so it was not necessary to leave until about 09:30. We spent 4 hours wandering about those parts we did not get to see well the last time and we had lunch. James was again fascinated by the penguins. He wanted to revisit the bats at the Tropical Discovery hall and he enjoyed watching a crowded pond-full of waterfowl at the end of the day. I took some more pictures, mostly of subjects that I had not seen on the last visit. There were still many Canada Geese in the park and indeed also within the zoo grounds with the following additional collars noted amongst the later. All had green collars. A5E3; A4E0; A7E4 and A4E[3 possibly 7?]. I have photographs of them all but the last one is uncertain because neck feathers partly obscure the last number. Also seen today were wild Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, 3-4 Hooded Merganser along with a few Mallard on Duck Lake in the Park but outside the zoo perimeter. There was a large number of Mallard, predominantly drakes, on three of the ponds within the zoo grounds. Again, I noted that none of the duck Mallard had marked tertials although most were showing signs of wing moult in that region. It seems to me that in the Mallard the duck has plain tertials while in basic plumage, assuming such a plumage is the pre-breeding feathering equivalent to the eclipse feathering of drakes. I am not sure this is the accepted interpretation given by most authorities but I would venture to say that they might have got it wrong. Whatever, it was clear today that duck tertials in these Mallard were plain coloured. Drake Mallard were uniformly immaculate. I suspect that ducks were about to acquire fully the alternate (breeding) plumage but were lagging some time behind the drakes in this respect. They would presumably acquire fresh body feathering as close as possible to the time of laying and incubating. At that time they also need to pluck feathers and down for nest lining. Some drake-to-drake interactions were seen (mainly introductory shakes and down-ups) and a little male display (including occasional grunt-whistles) was noted, mostly in response to inciting behaviour by a few of the ducks. Ducks called with decrescendo calls a few times and, on being alarmed, a wave of soft raahbs, uttered by drakes, would sweep through the flock. Speaking of responses, another amusing observation was that of the two Red-crowned Crane that seemed to bugle loudly, in typical crane tones, as a response to the equally loud bugling of two Trumpeter Swan; the later sounding awfully like the noise made by an old fashioned car horn - honk-honk!
Insert pictures here
At the far southern end of the Baseline Lake, on the way home, we came across 30-40 American Crow in some cottonwood trees alongside Cherryvale Road. I had not seen that many together before on this trip.
Late this afternoon a surprising number of birds was seen in the back garden, mostly at the new bird feeders installed a day or so ago. At least 20+ House Finch, 5+ Dark-eyed Junco and a few Black-capped Chickadee came to the feeders and a Black-billed Magpie and a Norther Flicker also showed up. We are hoping that the Downy Woodpecker will soon make an appearance at one of the bird feeders! Fondue night at home!
Day 21, Saturday, February 2nd
A Black-capped Chickadee was very close to coming to the new feeder in the front garden early this morning. Three to four European Starling have started to feed on the crab apples as they thaw out of the small pile in the front garden - a pile so far only exploited by an American Robin (who was nowhere to be seen today). Otherwise, we saw Dark-eyed Junco and House Finch in the back yard and the House finches were again at the feeder. A Black-billed Magpie was seen and also this morning, for the first time, a Downy Woodpecker came in to the suet at the new feeder in the back garden.
Later in the morning we drove up to Nederland in the mountains east of Boulder. We headed up to about 8000' along the Boulder Canyon Drive which is an extension of Arapahoe Avenue. We had lunch at a very odd cafe served by a 'confessed' web designer who was having difficulties coming to grips with serving in a cafe! She had three attempts to heat up a slice of pizza for me without toasting it to a frazzle! Almost nothing in the way of wild life seen except a possible jay in Nederland. Barker Lake alongside the town was solid frozen. Very light snow began to fall so we returned to Boulder and headed to the North Face Shop and a nearly toy store. Opposite was the Daphne's Cafe! The only addition in town was Feral Pigeon.
Insert pictures here
I take a walk with Alice the dog in the late afternoon and during a hour or so walking the Bobolink trail southwards I certainly saw more biomass than of late. Lots of skeins of Canada Geese were blogging about. Often the geese were in pairs, even in the flocks, but more obviously as they passed as two birds together. They seemed more noisy than ever, honking loudly as they came overhead. Some 500-1000 birds must have been in the area late this afternoon. They were feeding in the fields or moving about from place to place. Also seen were several Northern Flicker, perhaps a total of four, a solitary Ring-billed Gull heading towards Baseline Lake, a Black-billed Magpie and several groups of Red-winged Blackbird. These blackbirds numbered all-up about 50 individuals with some starting to display by extending their red epaulettes while giving snippets of their scratchy song. A few were flying out into the fields with dense patches of Teazel and seemed to take up territorial advertising with as yet feeble song and display. I think at this stage in the season the wing coverts are not that fully developed nor fully coloured on these blackbirds. The other interesting thing to note was that European Starling seemed to form mixed flocks with the blackbirds. A Red-tailed Hawk and a pair of Mallard completed the list. A better tally of species and certainly more individuals than I have seen here recently.
Insert pictures here
[ next entry ]
posted by Ardenna at 12:00 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home