Lamar, Colorado

Greetings from Lamar,

Birding has been slow in Lamar, with the high winds and dry, warm weather, most birding areas seem rather quiet.

Yesterday, February 2, 2006, I found a dead Inca Dove near my feeders. My guess is the immature Sharp-shinned Hawk that frequently visits the feeders (there is also a beautiful adult Cooper's surveying the area) flew in causing the birds to scatter. This particular bird had a broken neck, so it is possibly a window kill, although there were no marks on any of the windows near the feeders or perhaps I scared the SSHA and it dropped it's prey. Earlier in the morning while putting out the mail, the SSHA flew past me toward the feeders--about two hours later, I heard an INDO calling, "No hope, no hope", which lasted most of the afternoon. Would I be out of line to assume this was a mate to the deceased? A DOW person will take the specimen to the Denver Museum for me--I would venture to say, this is probably one of the first INDO specimens in the state of Colorado.

A birding friend of mine and I went to Lamar Community College a couple of days ago and saw the Carolina Wrens and the Red-bellied Woodpeckers among the more common species. Happily, I saw the Northern Magpie at the Woods. After the WNV outbreak, our population of NOMA dropped considerably and I missed seeing the 3 pairs that lived at LCC.

I continue to have Yellow-rumped Warblers coming to my water bath as well as a beautiful Gray Catbird. A few days ago, I had my first Audubon species of Yellow-rumped as my other five visitors are all Myrtles. The Red-breasted Nuthatches feeder regularly and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet visits my suet and my peanut butter feeders. My old faithfuls, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Inca Doves, Pine Siskin, Eurasian-collared Doves, Blue Jays and an ocassional Red-winged Blackbird visit the feeders regularly.

Let's hope rain arrives soon. The prairie is looking oh so very bleak.

Janeal