Southside Pride

I was planning to start this month’s column with what has been my usual start for much of the year: It’s been another slow month, etc. Then I found what is, from all my observations, a Powderhorn first. A Winter Wren has been foraging near the lakeshore east of the Tea House for the last two days (October 29 and 30). The wren is very small, at about 4 inches long, the smallest wren species in the United States. You can get fairly close to the bird, but its size, the dark cloudy days, and its ground-hugging feeding habits make it quite hard to get a clear view. On the rare occasions when it is not hidden under or behind the shore plantings, you see a very attractive pattern of brown shaded vertical stripes, a slight eye stripe, and a very short tail cocked up. According to range maps, the Winter Wren summers in Canada and far northern Minnesota, and will go somewhere in the southeastern United States for the winter.

While I was watching the wren and other birds on the 29th, a crew was removing the black plastic fence that has been protecting the new shore plantings for the last year. The crew thinks the plantings are doing OK. Time will tell; the plantings are supposedly guaranteed. I didn’t think to ask when they will remove the netting protecting plantings on the island.

The usual Mallards have stayed all month but almost all of the Wood Ducks have left, which is normal October behavior for both. Also, as usual, Canada Geese numbers have varied from none to about 100 one day mid-month. Most days there are seven Canada Geese that stick together whether there are other geese or not. As in other years, I am fairly sure these geese are the parents that nested on the island, raised six goslings and left in mid-summer. Something happened to one goose, leaving a family of seven. Last year, they also had six goslings, but two died before they matured and the family of six returned for a while in the fall. Lots of waterfowl to the north and west of us have not migrated yet because of fair weather so we might get a few “odd ducks” or other waterfowl but we usually get more unusual visitors during spring migration than in the fall.
There are usually a few Ring-billed Gulls at the lake. At times there have been more than 100. I was going to report that only small numbers of Crows had shown up so far this fall, but at dusk today at least 100 flew over the park.

Juncos have been in the park the last half of the month, a flock of 40 or 50 that are usually together, but the group can be found in various areas of the park. Sometimes there is an American Tree Sparrow with the Juncos, or sometimes it is by itself.

I got a very good look at a Cooper’s Hawk on the 16th. It was probably the same one I wrote about last month. It was flying south over the lake when I spotted it, and landed in a tree on the edge of the pine grove. I studied it from all sides before, as usual with hawks, it got tired of my staring and left. It matched every characteristic of my Sibley Guide to Birds first year Cooper’s Hawk illustration.
The backyard birding has been the usual with no migrants again this month.
So that leaves me with more space to fill. I could make up outlandish stories or I could write a little more about my stay in Colorado. The Bear-watching was not as good as two years ago. There was a mother bear with three cubs but all we saw was a dark shape running away. Other people saw the bear and saw it return to get the cubs. A Red Fox came right up to the deck while we were eating breakfast one morning, appearing to be well fed and ready for a long winter. And, I patiently trained a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel and three Least Chipmunks to eat out of my hand. I did not give them people food, only free-range organic birdseed. We saw some Mule Deer and hundreds of Elk. On one of our Elk watching missions, before the Elk showed up, we were able to watch a Northern Harrier (a member of the hawk family) from every angle and perspective, both perched and coursing over a meadow.

On a trip to the Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge (where we hoped to see moose but didn’t this time), we saw four Golden Eagles. I think it was a family group and they were doing some calling to each other. This is rare, as most raptors are silent except in mating or at the nest. We were driving on a narrow road in that area when nine Pronghorn Antelope walked out on the road, faced the car and formed a roadblock. I guess they had never seen a PT Cruiser or a Minnesota license plate. They lost interest and moved on in a short while.
From a birding standpoint, seeing my first American Dipper was interesting and exciting. The American Dipper is the only songbird that regularly swims, dives or walks under water. The Dipper only lives along fast moving mountain streams. It is a medium size, dull-looking, dark gray bird but its unique habits are what make it interesting. We saw it while walking on a bridge over the Vasquez Creek a couple hundred yards from where we stay. If it hadn’t flown from under that bridge, where it may have nested, we might have never noticed it. Dippers used to nest on cliffs, under rocks and behind waterfalls, but have adapted to nesting under man-made structures. Not being a competitive birder, I am not about adding numbers to my “life list” but rather enjoy the birds, insects, and mammals, and the habitats where I find them.

Comments and observations are always welcome. Send them to me, in care of the Southside Pride. Thank you.