All of the U.S. and Canadian tangers have been moved out of the tanager family and placed in the cardinal family but they are still called tanagers.  Confused?  This is a beautiful tropical species that comes north to breed in the Colorado mountains, often stopping first on a migrant trap like the Chico to refuel, often finding caterpillars for snacks.

While working on a bird project in California, I was introduced to this species other name.  This beautiful bird, here an adult male Western Tanager, is also sometimes called "Wasted Teenager".  If you see one of these in your yard, it should become an instant favorite with this great combination of bright colors.

Found on Wednesday, banded on Thursday, the warbler from southeastern U.S. was still being seen on Saturday, now wearing a metal bracelet. The species part of the scientific name of this attractive warbler is dominica, named for Santo Domingo, before the name was changed to Hipaniola. The first Yellow-throated Warbler was discovered here but recently all Yellow-throated Warblers from the West Indies, in particular those nesting on Grand Bahama and the Cayman Islands were given species rank and a new name, Bahama Warbler. Our Yellow-throated Warbler is often associated with "Spanish moss" the attractive lichen of the south which the warbler uses for lining its nest.  The Chico bird is far from its traditional breeding grounds.

A Colorado breeder, Virginia's Warbler finally arrived on its way to an oak or mountain mahogany hillside possibly along our Front Range where they are fairly common breeders.  In 1858, army assistant surgeon, William W. Anderson, found and described the first Virginia's Warbler in New Mexico.  He named it after his wife, Virginia. 

When a queen bee leaves a colony with a large group worker bees, a swarm results. Often as many as 60% of the worker bees leave the original hive location with the old queen. This swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees. Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon. An afterswarms may also result; these are usually smaller and are the swarm is accompanied by one or more virgin queens.

An individual bee without a colony cannot survive for long. The colony needs a certain colony size in order to reproduce. Lee mentioned that bees in a swarm are docile and can be moved to a hive without threat of being stung.

It is the last school day of the spring bird banding season. At one point we had 4 buses parked at HQ.  Kids, Teachers, parents and Chico educating staff were everywhere.  Some eating lunch under the Cottonwoods down at the lake, some nets in hand patrolling for insects at the lakes edge.  Others were gathered around our gentle old kids mare Penelope learning about horsemanship or touring about the corrals and squeeze chute practicing their branding skill on small pieces of wood and bottle feeding our bottle lamb Primrose.  It is a great way to end a very successfull spring education season.  Hats off to Katy and Lee and Nancy the bird bander, and all their great volunteer helpers and Chico staff assistants, for helping kids connect with wildlife and ranchlife here on the Chico Prairie.

The Peregrine Falcon was the symbol of the environmental movement of the 1970s when its population in North America plummeted due to the widely used insecticide DDT whose byproduct, DDE, caused eggshell thinning in avian predators at the end of the food chain.  Peregrines were also once a symbol of wilderness until hack sites were placed in metropolitan areas such as on skyscrapers' window ledges and underneath wide span bridges.  Peregrine Falcon is one of the most widespread avian species, absent as a breeder only from the Amazon Basin, the Sahara Desert, Antarctica, and most of the steppes of central and eastern Asia. Their diet includes many hundreds of species of birds and some bats; some Peregrines roosting all day and hunting only when bats stream out of bat caves at dusk.  This bird was a northbound migrant that stooped low on a black-tailed prairie-dog colony on the Chico but the p-dogs started their warning cries long before the falcon could sneak in.

For an unkown reason Baltimore Oriole, a breeder in CO's northeastern counties, is very rarely seen in Pueblo County where John Drummond found one singing today and was able to get this photograph.  One of the most familiar birds to many non-birders, it is the bird that is the logo for the professional Major League Baseball's team, the Baltimore Orioles.  Mark Catesby named this bird the “Baltimore-Bird,” because black and orange were the colors of the Baltimores, the colonial proprietors of the Maryland colony. This is a tropical species, most individuals wintering from central Mexico south to Colombia, South America.  Chico's common breeder, Bullock's Oriole, is a very close relative of Baltimore Oriole and they hybridize in their zone of contact.

Last week a large group of birders from the Denver Audubon Master Birding Class had a great time birding on the Chico.  One of the highlights was a mammal, although one that flies.  At Rose Pond a Brazilian Free-tailed Bat put on a show as it swept in to drink water before flying over to a cottonwood to roost.  Examination of the photograph above will show that the tail extends past the membrane (free-tail), a feature found in very few U.S. bat species.  Members of this species roost in very large colonies, usually in caves; the most famous location is at Carlsbad Caverns National Park where thousands of people watch the entrance to a very large cave and view tens of thousands of bats leaving the cave for their nightly hunting adventures.

During Chico Days, John Drummond led a large group of birders from the Boulder Bird Club. They found a Wood Thrush (photo by John) near the banding station. 

This has been one of the more unusual spring migrations with many southeastern warblers showing up and just recently the CO breeding birds returning and the trees leafing out three weeks early.

Today, a small group from the Greater Denver Audubon Society saw the rare Yellow-throated Vireo and rare Yellow-throated Warbler in addition to the eastern species, Baltimore Oriole.  A Northern Waterthrush (a warbler) was at the small headquarters pond.  A Mountain Plover was a life bird for two and a Peregrine Falcon dove unsuccessfully towards some black-tailed prairie dogs out on the plains, a very strange place to encouter this falcon.

 Lots of babies right now.  Every time we go through the Holmes pasture where the two year old heifers are, little gangs of calves lay about, usually with only one or two mothers, babysitting.  If you don't drive slowly, they run out in front of the car..so beware!

Denny is eighty-four years old. He climbed a tower on our pivot yesterday to service the fuse-box, stopping at each truss to visit about neighbors and mutual acquaintances, and deliver gentle ribbings to Allen and I on the ground, his groundcrew, the two of us working through the tool boxes, bolts and fuzes in the bed of his truck. At each stop on his gradual ascent, and his gradual descent, Denny, talked, caught his breath and re-gathered his balance and talked, unwilling to take a respite without cause.

Finally, as we visited at his car window, the pivot rolling gradually again, each tower stopping for a moment before continuing  in its movement, always spraying, the three of us speaking over the sound of the pump engine, Denny doled out to Allen and I handfulls of coconut m&ms.

 Jeff came over to help brand ( from the MZ where he lives and works as the ranch manager), bringing Carla and his two French interns.  Because his foot is broken, he drove the wagon with Ruby and Raven, shown here.  He did all the branding.  It was great working with him on the ground like we did.

 The old hand taking care of the young hand.

 Jonathan with a live one at the end of his rope, cool as a cucumber.

This is Primrose.  Feeding her is the new favorite event for our school groups at Headquarters.  Even the college kids were distracted when they found out it was feeding time.  "let's see I can help feed the cute little lamby or listen to the ranch manager talk about grazing management....hmmm?"

Eastern Towhee is rare in Colorado, our breeding species is Spotted Towhee.  But, there it was feeding on miller moths in the parking area for headquarters.  Surprisigly this is the third record for the ranch.  It also perched in a tree and sang its distinctive "drink your teeeeee" song.  There are more birders at the Chico this spring and these rarities help to draw in more each day. Most of the rare birds from yesterday were seen again today.

As the name implies, night-herons forage at dawn and dusk and during the evening hours and roost during the day usually hidden in the marsh.  These three Black-crowned Night-Herons are migrants so the fact that they are visible and not in hiding just means they are still in the migration mode.  I wouldn't want to be a bullfrog in headquarters pond tonight.

Golden-winged Warbler is small and beautiful.  One was first seen and then caught and banded today in the banding station area woods.  The closest relative of Golden-winged Warbler is Blue-winged Warbler and although they look quite different, their songs are very similar.  Interbreeding of the two speices produces fertile hybrid offspring, the hybrids origianlly thought to be two separate species. These two hybrids, Brewster's and Lawrences's warblers were found to carry the dominant and recessive traits of the two parental species. For an unknown reason, there is little differentiation in nuclear DNA between the two species suggesting a recent isolation.

Golden-winged Warbler is declining in many areas and has disappeared from previously occupied regions. In many areas of its former range they are being replaced by Blue-winged Warblers.  A great bird to see up close. 

 

Although the correct name of this bird is Black-and-white Warbler, it has also been called creeping warbler, striped warbler, whitepoll warbler, referee bird, and scrannel.  They do not breed in Colorado but they are seen almost every year during migration on the Chico.  It is unique in that it is the only member of the genus, Mniotilta, which translates as "moss-plucker".  Black-and-whites frequently forage in the fissures of bark using its slightly decurved bill to probe for spiders, spider eggs and insects.  It is one of the earlier migrants and today's bird foraged high in the big cottonwoods near the banding station.

Although no warbler eats earthworms, caterpillars have sometimes been refered to as worms. Worm-eating Warbler is subtly attractive with the head stripes resembling the football helmets worn by University of Michigan football players. The Worm-eating Warbler is a dead leaf specialist, hopping through the understory and probing into hanging dead leaf clusters for food including spiders.
This was the third ranch record for this species, the first time one was captured at the banding station and it was also captured in pixels by Steve Brown.

The quietness of spring can be seen in the water.  And in the reflection of moving life around it. The trees at its edge are as still as the water, but their buds are about to burst into leaves.

 We have our very own artist: Duke Beardsely.  Duke rides with us to gather images for his work as an artist, but he's more than just an artist.  He's pretty handy.  He holds his own with the roping, mugging, holding the herd, and just about anything else that needs to be done.  But, most of all he's a brother.  We keep in close communication about the rain here, the paintings coming out of his studio there.  He greatly enjoys coming out to try to capture the spirit of ranching is, the stuff behind the image. And, he comes out because he loves ranching and the day to day life it creates.  Here he is right after we let the herd go.  This branding, he was too busy helping to get many images, so he's making up for lost time.  Its great having him come down to ride with us.

 Here are two more of these young people.  Connor and Kathleen.  Connor has been here a few weeks, and Kathleen a few months.  When they arrived, they had never thrown a calf and now, are old hands at it.  And having fun too.

One of my favorite things in the whole world is watching young people who come to the ranch and grow into the most that they can be.  They put themselves wholly into finding something that they want to learn, then practice like mad and then suddenly, amazingly, really good at it.  Take this young fellow, for example: Elliot.  He arrived at the ranch never have thrown a rope.  He decided he wanted to learn how to do it and he practiced and practiced and practiced.  Now, look at him.  He's in the herd not only throwing a nice loop, but he gets around in the cows gently, not stirring them, using the them to slip up close enough to throw the noose around the calves with them hardly knowing they are roped, and then dallying, pulling the calf to the fire.  These are skills that look easy but are difficult because it requires doing a bunch of things together at one time.  Elliot roping in the herd last week was off the charts awesome; it's what happens when you throw your heart into something, regardless of difficult it might be.

 We've had lots of projects this spring.  One of them was headed by Jonathan with a band of volunteers, who built benches at he lakes for viewing waterfowl and wildlife at the water's edge.  Here is one of the benches being enjoyed by the man himself, and Elliot.

In 1893, five pairs of Chukars were shipped to Illinois from within part of their native range, Karachi, currently a part of Pakistan (but formerly part of India). Between 1931 and 1970 as many as 795,000 Chukars were released in 41 states in the U.S. (including western Colorado) and 10,600 birds were released in six Canadian provinces.  The Great Basin with its steep, rocky mountain terrain and sparse grasses and forbs is this species' prefered habitat in North America. Although at least four escaped birds are currently enjoying the alfalfa field on the Chico, Chukars primary foods are seeds of annual and perennial grasses including the introduced cheatgrass Bromus tectorum, a noxious weed in Colorado and in most western states.   

I  observed a mated pair of Chukars along with this male whose chuk chuk chukar calls seem to so far have been ignored by a nearby female.  Just look for a white head in the sea of green to find one.

Everyone is busy as our good friend Duke Beardsley brings another one in.

We  had good little camp branding this week.  We headed down Wednesday morning at day break and gathered our big southern herd into a smaller pasture that will provide a transition to a much bigger pasture they are headed to.  We had a good mellow evening at thof stew and camradery at the Bar JH and slept out under the stars.  Breakfast was at 5am. THen we gathered the herd up into a tight corner and let the branding begin.  Many of these cattle were not accustomed to being held up like this, so the riders had their hands full keeping the bunch quitters from heading out.  In the end the cattle settled down real nice.  Good training for man and beast alike.

One of the most common species on the Chico, Horned Lark, is not at the top of most people's attractive bird list so most birders ignore them.  But, today I watched an amazing confrontation between two males. The bird with outstretched wings seemed to win the confrontation, the close one walked away.

The metallic bronze plumage of White-faced Ibis can be striking when seen in good light.  As often happens, the least prominent feature, the white around the eye in this case, was used in naming this ibis species, feathers that are only seen during the breeding season. White-faced Ibis are common during migration on the Chico.  Right now the best place to observe them is at Rose Pond.  White-faced Ibis is especially common in the Great Basin, while they winter in large flocks in Mexico, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas.

Orange-crowned Warbler is a common migrant on the Chico.  Birders rarely  see the crown coloration while birding, except when the birds get caught and RMBO bird banders show everyone the feature responsible for this species' name.

Chico's second record of Kentucky Warbler (first from the same area) was found and photographed (above) by Brandon Percival in the willows adjacent to the little headquarters pond.  The second part of the scientific name, formosa, means beautiful and it is.   This is an eastern species whose range extends west to wooded river valleys of extreme southwestern Iowa, and extreme southeastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and the eastern quarter of Texas.  The nest is placed on the ground but attached to the base of a shrub.

Kentucky Warbler was first found in 1821 by Alexander Wilson in, you guessed correctly, Kentucky. When they do sing, sometimes in migration, Kentucky Warbler's loud song, churry, churry, churry, helps birders detect this skulker.  

Two years ago it became obvious that a big cottonwood that was leaning ominously over the New Saddlehouse had died.  Duke managed to take off a few lower branches that really threatened to pull it over and get a rope around it.  Then the wind came upand we sort thought better of it. It was just too risky without the proper equipment.
So it has stood... waiting.  
This week we rented a big 45 foot lift to help us with numerous problem trees around houses, outbuildings, and power lines.  Our intern Conner "the Bucket Man" is pretty good with a saw.  We made out plans... and the Saddle House Tree Came down. 

Unlike the drab Lucy's Warbler, the Hooded Warbler is a beauty and while the Lucy's was seen in the highest cottonwoods, the Hooded was found within 10 feet of the ground.  Hooded Warbler is considered a “gap specialist” as its habitat, usually includes gap or edge habitat that is preferred by females for nesting.  Hooded is an eastern species, regular on the Chico in migration, but they don't breed much farther west than eastern Texas.  The species portion of its scientific name, citrina, means lemon-colored. Duh. Let the warbler flow continue.

The 330th bird species found on the Chico was found this morning adjacent to the banding station trees by Brandon Percival.  Luckily, I arrived 15 minutes later and we were able to photograph this unexpected southwestern species. Lucy's Warbler is one of only two cavity nesting warblers (Prothonotary is the other) in the U.S and Canada.  It nests in mature mesquite riparian areas in southwesternmost Texas, west to southwestern California, in Colorado only in Yellowjacket Canyon along the Utah border, and into northwestern Mexico.  It our smallest, 4.25 inches, and drabest warbler and surprisingly almost nothing is known about its reproductive biology.  It was discovered in 1861 by Dr. James Cooper, a prominent Californian ornithologist; he named the new species for Lucy Hunter Baird, the 13-year-old daughter of Spencer Fullerton Baird, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.  In the past, Lucy's Warbler has been called "Desert Warbler"; its is the first warbler species to arrive in late March and the first to leave, as early as late June.  They winter along the western Mexican coast.

Here's a the frame of a set of shelves Michael and I built in the Quonset a couple weeks ago. Soon, the mess in the stage left and right foreground will be shelved.