Morning Birding Species List | July 11, 2017

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Tuesday, July 11, 2017, 6:30AM – 9:30AM
Weather: partly cloudy
Location: Hallam Lake and the Aspen Music School campus

Species Identified
Canada Goose Mallard Red-tailed Hawk Spotted Sandpiper Broad-tailed Hummingbird Red-naped Sapsucker Northern Flicker Cordilleran Flycatcher Warbling Vireo Black-billed Magpie Common Raven Tree Swallow Violet-green Swallow Mountain Chickadee		House Wren American Dipper (pictured above) Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Cedar Waxwing Yellow Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Green-tailed Towhee Song Sparrow Lincoln’s Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird Brown-headed Cowbird

Comments:

Hallam Lake highlights were Spotted Sandpiper chicks and great looks at Song Sparrows. We discussed the reversed role system that Sandpipers use, in that the males raise the brood and the females defend territories. At the Music School campus we were treated to lots of nesting and fledgling activity. A family of Dippers was feeding in Castle Creek which was still flowing quite high. The dippers used the few streamside rocks that were exposed for perching, as well as low willow branches overhanging the water. A family of Mountain Chickadees was foraging in another willow thicket, a pair of Cedar Waxwings was constructing a nest in a Douglas fir tree, and two pairs of Cordilleran Flycatchers were nesting within 100 yards of each other- one in a hole in the siding of a small shed, and the other on a siren horn mounted on the side of another building- showing Cordillerans’ propensity for nesting on human-made structures and in close proximity to activity. 

~ Rebecca Weiss, ACES Bird Guide 

 

Photo by Dale Armstrong