Buena Vista area

As I noted in last night's post, I led a field trip yesterday morning at the conclusion of our state Audubon convention. After we left the Chalk Creek Fish Hatchery in the Nathrop area, we took the scenic route (CR321) to Buena Vista. This route has fantastic views of the upper Arkansas River valley. It also winds through some nice ponderosa pine habitat.

Along this county road we found Pygmy Nuthatches, Mountain Bluebirds and a Swainson's Hawk (not very common in the mountains though it was in a location with a lot of grasslands, which is their habitat).

In the town of Buena Vista we found a good concentration of Lewis's Woodpeckers, observing more than 15 in a half mile drive through a residential area with lots of large cottonwood trees (where they nest). We also saw a Hairy Woodpecker and several Northern Flickers in this area. In an area with pinyon-juniper habitat we found an Olive-sided Flycatcher, Western Wood-Pewees and an empid (Empidonax flycatcher) species as well as two flocks (about 20 in each) of Bushtits. And though I had seen several Pinyon Jays the day before when I scouted the area, we only heard their (raucous and unmistakeable) calls on the trip.

In an area of Buena Vista that has several lakes, one of our birders spotted a Black Tern (unusual in this area). Another unusual (though not as rare as is often stated) was a Common Nighthawk flying around in late morning (after the field trip I saw 2 Common Nighthawks flying in early afternoon there).

Other birds I in Buena Vista in the afternoon after the field trip included a flock of 8-10 Cedar Waxwing, several Yellow-headed Blackbirds, a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk, a juvenile Red-naped Sapsucker and Brewer's Sparrows (including one feeding a fledgling which may indicate local breeding).

The Buenva Vista area provides quite good birding. It is at about 8,000 feet elevation and lies in a high mountain valley in which the Arkansas River flows down from it's headwaters just north of here in the Leadville area.

SeEtta