Birding the four corners area and beyond- Spring/Summer 2013 (1 Viewer)

At long last, I finished my PhD and landed a job: 1-2 years as a postdoctoral researcher for the University of Arizona. I'll be spending this summer based in Dolores, SW Colorado, doing research on 5 different bird projects. I'll use this space to post general birding comments about the area, probably some photos of mist-netted birds, and descriptions of birding farther afield on our days off.

We're already over a week into work, we started out by stopping at our study sites near Walnut Canyon (just outside Flagstaff, AZ) on our way up from Tucson. This is an area of pinyon-juniper forest, where the pinyon is just coming back after beyond knocked out by drought. A nice flock of Pinyon Jays included some noisy juveniles, a good sign that the forest is recovering.

Here at our main site (and cabin) about 25 miles upriver from Dolores, CO, spring migration is in full swing, with Black-headed Grosbeaks mobbing the feeders and good numbers of Yellow-rumped (Audubon's) Warblers moving through. The first Cordilleran Flycatchers, the focus of one of our studies, have shown up this week. Some of the resident birds include both Mountain and Black-capped Chickadees and Evening Grosbeaks. A nice male Broad-tailed Hummingbird guards the hummingbird feeder, and we can hear his wings whistling all day as he chases off intruders and performs his diving displays. The other day we captured a Brewer's Sparrow, kind of a surprising find for this forested area- it was clearly a migrant though, with lots of stored fat and no evidence of breeding condition.

Yesterday was one of our days off, so I spent much of the day out birding. I left the cabin around 4:30 am and headed out to Monticello, Utah, where there is a lek of Gunnison's Sage Grouse nearby. I knew which road they were on, but not exactly where, nor whether they would even be lekking still this late in the spring. I got to the road right around sunrise, and it was pretty clear where to look- there was good sagebrush habitat for a few miles, with pasture everywhere else. There were Vesper Sparrows and Brewer's Sparrows singing everywhere, along with a few Sage Thrashers and Sage Sparrows. Horned Larks were quite common in the more sparse pasture areas. In a small stand of trees, there were two Golden Eagles perched; they were quite wary and flew as I approached in my car, but I managed one ok flight shot. I spent several hours driving up and down the road, frequently getting out to scan the sagebrush and listen for the grouse, but no luck.

I spent much of the late morning and afternoon back in Colorado at Mesa Verde National Park. It was a bit crowded for my liking, but the scenery was great and the birding good despite the less than ideal time of day. Spotted and Green-tailed Towhees sang at nearly every stop, with a few Virginia's Warblers and a Gray Vireo on some of lower slopes. Farther up, I found Orange-crowned Warbler and many Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and a pair of Western Bluebirds were feeding nestlings as I ate my lunch near Far View. The loop drive at Mesa Top was a bit more forested, with taller junipers, and housed many Black-throated Gray Warblers, a Gray Flycatcher, and a Plumbeous Vireo. White-throated Swifts wheeled by at the canyon overlooks. A random pullout on the way down was quite productive, with a Peregrine Falcon overhead, a male MacGillivray's Warbler skulking in a patch of trees, both towhees, another Gray Flycatcher, and a singing Rock Wren.

Congratulations on your PhD. I'll be looking forward to further installments.

Chris

Grosbeak migration peaked a few days ago, with a high count of 70-80 Black-headed and Evening Grosbeaks at and around the feeders. MacGillivray's Warblers have shown up, and the Lincoln's Sparrows are singing.

One of last year's banded Cordilleran Flycatchers is back this year, singing in his same territory. This morning we caught what might be his mate. A few other notable mist net captures have included a male Red-naped Sapsucker and a Steller's Jay.

This afternoon while I was running on a nearby forest trail, I rounded a corner and found myself face-to-face with a Black Bear! It was far more startled than I was, and it turned around immediately and ran upslope into the forest. What an encounter!

What? No pictures of the bear? :0
Some excellent birds you're seeing. I will put that on my long list of places to visit.

Steve

So much catching up to do... I'll have to be brief.

A few weeks ago we made our first visits to our field sites farther down the Dolores River, one sight near Slickrock, Colorado and the other near Bedrock, Colorado. The riparian vegetation at both places hosted Yellow-breasted Chat, Warbling Vireo, Yellow Warbler, and Blue Grosbeak, with Gray Catbirds at Slickrock. The pinyon-juniper woodland of the higher slopes contained Gray Vireo (fairly common around Slickrock) and occasionally groups of Pinyon Jays. I heard Common Poorwills at both sites, and finally managed a good look at one at Slickrock.

Afterward, we had a few days of netting around the cabin, and then a few days off. My technicians and I returned to Mesa Verde National Park, and with fewer crowds we managed to see some of the archeological sites. Many of the same birds as last time: Gray Vireo, Virginia's Warbler, Spotted and Green-tailed Towhees, and Black-throated Gray Warbler among others.

During one day off I went for a longish run along Lizard Head Pass Trail, about 15 miles up the road from Rico (30 miles from our cabin). In addition to the aspen-fir forest birds found lower down, I heard Olive-sided Flycatcher and saw Clark's Nutcracker and American Three-toed Woodpecker (without binoculars even!).

This last week we spent at our Arizona sites, the pinyon-juniper woodland around Flagstaff and then a pilot survey/netting study near a uranium mine just south of the Grand Canyon. The forest around the mine was ponderosa pine with an understory of sage, pinyon, and juniper. It was quite birdy, and mist-netting was surprisingly successful. There were both Western and Mountain Bluebirds, Pygmy Nuthatches, Gray Flycatcher (captured only, surprisingly never seen/heard), Western Tanager, Western Wood-Pewee, Mountain Chickadee, and lots more. After our shortest morning of work we visited the Grand Canyon, where bird-wise the highlight was no doubt the flyover California Condor, right over the parking lot!

I envy you that Condor - and the job!

Sounds like a nice area - hope the uranium mine is not causing too much ecological blight.

Cheers
Mike

I know this sounds strange....and I still do not fully agree with it...but the California Condor cannot be officially counted as a tic, when someone is having a big year etc...

From my understanding, since it was close to extinct, and they brought it back, ....it takes 60 years or so until the bird is considered wild again or some odd thing such as that. Has anyone else heard anything on that?

Congrats on finishing and getting a really cool job in a wonderful area!

Even with many birds still in the midst of breeding- American Robins and Cordilleran Flycatchers feeding nestlings (at our nestcams!), Dark-eyed Juncos feeding fledglings- the first hints of fall migration have begun. Mostly with local movements: Cedar Waxwings are suddenly in the yard, Yellow Warblers are molting, and Virginia's Warblers are trickling in from the drier forests in the valley, but also an early Rufous Hummingbird. A few Evening Grosbeaks have returned after several weeks of absence, with one pair regularly visiting our feeders.

We surveyed Ryman Creek trail a week ago, which follows a high-elevation valley of beautiful spruce-fir forest. Some interesting birds included many Hammond's Flycatchers (not present at the cabin) and a pair of Pine Grosbeaks.

We also recently revisited our study area just outside of Bedrock, CO. The afternoons were uncomfortably hot, hovering around 38 degrees C and with a blasting hot wind, but mornings were cool and pleasant. As at the cabin, all the warblers were molting, Black-throated Grays and Yellow Warblers mostly stopped singing, and some Virginia's Warblers had moved in. Yellow-breasted Chats were still in full song, including an individual near our camping area that sang all night, every night, and throughout most of the day. We also spotted a Golden Eagle several times, a little ways into the canyon.

Congrats on the PhD, the condor and an array of other great birds. Look forward to monitoring this thread

We're finally getting a bit of rain in the region, although the rains are usually light and brief by my eastern-US standards. Still, a lot of birds seem to have called it quits for the season and have begun migrating. There was an influx of Cordilleran Flycatchers this week, although our pair at the nest cam are still doing well, the nestlings due to fledge in a few days. A nice male Rufous Hummingbird is still hanging around.

Our recent trip to Slick Rock, CO also brought some surprises, such as migrant Brewer's Sparrows, Cassin's Kingbird, Virginia's Warblers, and two Clark's Nutcrackers, unusual at the elevation (~5000 ft) and habitat (pinyon-juniper on the canyon slopes). Lots of fledglings about: Black-throated and Lark Sparrows, Black-throated Gray and Yellow Warblers, Black-headed and Blue Grosbeaks. Many species more typical of the canyon slopes have moved down into the riparian zone along the Dolores River- quite strange to see (and catch!) Rock Wrens in the willows, and Gray Vireos and Juniper Titmouse have also been moving down.

One evening at Slick Rock I watched a pair of Yellow-breasted Chats with food in their bills, hopping around and seeming somewhat agitated. I was looking down on them next to the river, when suddenly I noticed something swimming below them- a River Otter! It swam a few circles, made some strange baby-like calls, and then disappeared. Neat.

A few weeks ago, my technicians and I decided that before the summer ended, we wanted to hike one of Colorado's 14ers (peaks above 14,000 ft (4200 m)). We settled on Mt. Windom, partly because of the allure of the journey by steam engine from Durango into a wilderness area, followed by a 6-mile hike to base camp in the middle of nowhere. So on Wednesday we set out for our journey, spending three days backpacking a total of 22 miles, with a 6,000 ft elevation gain between the train drop-off site and the top of Mt. Windom at 14,087 ft.

The birds have become very quiet over the last couple weeks, so we saw or heard very little on the hike to base camp, other than a few Clark's Nutcrackers, and a confiding Pine Marten near camp. Base camp is located within Chicago Basin, a lush, relatively flat area around 11,000 ft surrounded on three sides by high peaks. A few Gray Jays paid us a visit as we set up camp, and a nanny-and-kid pair of Mountain Goats meandered by, apparently (as we read online) in hopes of licking up our urine.

The next day we set out soon after first light toward the summit. The slopes above the basin were teeming with curious Mountain Goats and rather less bold Yellow-bellied Marmots, although bird-wise we saw a few White-crowned Sparrow and little else. As we crested a ridge around 12,000 ft and began to pass by more talus slopes we saw many Pikas, some of which were quite unafraid of us. Farther up, as the terrain became steeper and rockier with a few small patches of snow, we entered the realm of American Pipits, plus a tantalizing glimpse and a few call notes from a probable Brown-capped Rosy-Finch. Once above a saddle at 13,200 ft, even the pipits disappeared, with only the sound of the wind and the Common Ravens cavorting 1000 or more feet below us to accompany our scramble up the boulders to the summit. The view from the top was incredible, even with the clouds, rain, and brief hail.

Fatigue and an evening thunderstorm sent us to bed at 7, and in the drippy early dawn the next morning I woke to the sound of an American Three-toed Woodpecker drumming quite close to our tents. A couple of Evening Grosbeaks called as they flew overhead, and an Olive-sided Flycatcher called in the distance. There was a pair of Cordilleran Flycatchers hanging around the campsite as we ate a leisurely breakfast, as well as a pair with fledglings elsewhere in the basin as we wandered around. We packed up and began our descent to the train stop around noon, spotting a few Hermit Thrushes on the way down.

A few more photos

The Pine Marten picture is pretty cool, Ovenbird and it looks like you were in a pine forest at the time.
Did you have any problems with the altitude? I got a little dizzy in my only trip above 14,000 but I was in a car and went fairly quickly. Maybe hiking gives more time to adjust...


Steve

What a place - stunning!

Hamhed said:

The Pine Marten picture is pretty cool, Ovenbird and it looks like you were in a pine forest at the time.
Did you have any problems with the altitude? I got a little dizzy in my only trip above 14,000 but I was in a car and went fairly quickly. Maybe hiking gives more time to adjust...


Steve

Click to expand...

No problems with the altitude- I'm generally not very susceptible, but it certainly helped that I've been living and training at 8,000 ft all summer.

Once again, congratulations on the PhD. I've been enjoying your updates, as I'm not too far away from Dolores myself (Montrose). I will say that Dolores is a long way from Tiputini!

Ovenbird, I love your pica picture. I've also been admiring the second pic in post 13 - is that a brown-capped rosy finch? It didn't look like other pictures I've found. I guess its a female whatever it is.

Thanks for sharing the beauty of that part of the country.

Gretchen said:

Ovenbird, I love your pica picture. I've also been admiring the second pic in post 13 - is that a brown-capped rosy finch? It didn't look like other pictures I've found. I guess its a female whatever it is.

Thanks for sharing the beauty of that part of the country.

Click to expand...

Thank you. The bird in the photo you mention is a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow.