5th Annual BioBlitz

Red Canyon Ranch, Lander Wyoming | June 21-22 2014

Audubon of the Rockies, The Nature Conservancy, and the UW Biodiversity Institute have partnered to bring together some of the best biologists and naturalists in Wyoming, resulting in an amazing weekend experience just for you! We hope you'll join LAS for the unique opportunity to explore and learn about birds, bats, herps, fish, and more with hands-on activities.

Register by June 7!

The 2014 BioBlitz, held this year in beautiful Red Canyon Ranch, 20 miles south of Lander, Wyoming, will bring together scientists and the public to survey for every type of organism we can find in an area within a couple of days. The BioBlitz will be a 24-hour event in which teams of scientists, teachers, volunteers, environmental educators, and community members join forces to find, identify, and learn about as many local plant, insect and animal species as possible.

Activities include bird mist netting, herp sampling, bee and butterfly identification, plant walks, bat mist netting, small mammal trapping and more!

Full schedule of events and location information.

Join us for part or all of the event. Free, open to the public, & family friendly. PTSB credits available for teachers.

Upcoming trip: Hutton NWR and Chimney Rock

Hoge Lake at Hutton NWR

Join us for a field trip to Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge this Saturday, June 7th. We expect to see waterfowl, raptors, songbirds, and more. After Hutton we will head to the Sand Creek/Chimney Rock area to see if we can find nesting Prairie Falcons, Ferruginous Hawks, or Golden Eagles. Along the way, we'll stop by a small wetland where we heard a Veery call last year. Former Laramie Audubon president and professional bird tour leader, Tim Banks, is back in Laramie and will lead this outing.

Meet downtown at Coal Creek (110 Grand Ave) at 8 am to caffeinate and carpool. All Laramie Audubon field trips are free and open to the public; families are welcome. Bring water and snacks, field guide(s), binoculars, spotting scope if you have one, and dress for the worst weather. Gas up ahead of time. This trip will last several hours but if you have your own vehicle, you may leave any time you want.

Volunteers needed for nightjar surveys

We will be conducting our yearly nightjar surveys between June 5 – 19, 2014.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this effort, the Laramie Audubon Society participates in a National Nightjar Survey that was initiated in 2007 by the Center for Conservation Biology. Nightjars are enigmatic, nocturnally-active birds whose populations are thought to be declining throughout North America. Wyoming has two species of nightjars: Common Nighthawk and Common Poorwill.

Common Nighthawk. Photo by Kenneth Schneider (Flickr, CC)

In 2009, Laramie Audubon adopted five survey routes in the vicinity of Laramie and we have been surveying these routes once a year ever since. The night surveys are fairly easy and quite enjoyable. Surveys take no more than two hours and consist of making 10 stops along an established route. At each stop, we count the number of nightjars heard during a 6-minute period and fill out our observations on a data sheet. It is important to have good hearing to conduct these surveys. Surveys have to take place on a relatively clear night when the moon is more than 50 percent full and when there is not too much wind (these requirements can be challenging for the Laramie area!). Surveys begin at least 30 minutes after sunset and must be completed after moonrise and before moonset. You can do the surveys alone, but it’s easier to work in teams.

If you are interested in participating in these surveys please e-mail me. For those who would like to participate, I will explain the protocols and data collection, and hand out data sheets, sunset/moonrise/moonset times, and survey route maps on Tuesday June 3rd at 6 pm in the University of Wyoming Student Union, at the seating area across from the information booth on the main level. If you cannot make this training time but would like to participate, please e-mail to set up an alternate time to meet me.

Common Poorwill. Photo by Andy Teucher (Flickr, CC)

Thanks to those who decide to participate and let’s hope the weather cooperates this year!

Sophie Osborn

P.S. For those who prefer hiking and doing daytime bird surveys, we will be conducting our annual Brown-capped Rosy-Finch survey on July 12, 2014 this year. More information about that survey to come soon...

Laramie Hotspots Field Trip Report

The weather for our trip today was great and despite a relatively slow morning bird-wise, we had
excellent views of colorful neotropical migrants and spent some quality time learning to identify birds by their songs. Highlights were a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak at Greenhill Cemetery, a singing Veery at Optimist Park, and dark-morph Swainson's Hawks at Optimist Park and Greenhill Cemetery. We detected a total of 44 species; links to the eBird checklists for each hotspot and the complete trip list are below.

Optimist Park/Greenbelt
LaBonte Park
Greenhill Cemetery

Species List
Canada Goose
Double-crested Cormorant
Turkey Vulture
Swainson's Hawk
American Avocet
Spotted Sandpiper
Wilson's Phalarope
California Gull
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker
Western Kingbird
American Crow
Common Raven
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Mountain Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Song Sparrow
Western Tanager
Rose-breated Grosbeak
Black-headed Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock's Oriole
House Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Book talk by Jackie Canterbury

Join us next Wednesday, May 28th, for our last evening program of the spring season. Dr. Jackie Canterbury, co-author of Birds and Birding in Wyoming's Bighorn Mountains Region, will give a talk followed by a book signing. Her book was published last fall and contains the most up-to-date information on the distribution and breeding status of bird species found in the Bighorns. Birds and Birding also explains the Bighorns' ecology, geology, and birding locations.

The talk will be held at the Berry Center in conjunction with the University of Wyoming's Biodiversity Institute. The reception will begin at 6:30 pm and Dr. Canterbury's talk will begin at 7:00 pm. This event is open to the public.

Birds and Birding in Wyoming is available for purchase or free download here.

LAS field trip to Hereford Ranch, Cheyenne, WY

Eastern Screech-Owl. Photo © Julie Hart

It’s not every day that you see an Eastern Screech Owl and a Red-headed Woodpecker, but the twelve participants on Laramie Audubon’s May 17, 2014 trip to the Hereford Ranch, near Cheyenne, were treated to spectacular views of both of these species as well as 54 others. The rain that was forecast held off, the sky cleared, and the birds cooperated. While we didn’t see any orioles, vireos, or quite the warbler diversity we expected, we all enjoyed the colors, songs, and avian activity that were on display at Hereford.

Bird list:
Mallard 
Great Blue Heron 
Turkey Vulture 
Broad-winged Hawk

Photo © Julie Hart

Swainson's Hawk 
Red-tailed Hawk 
Spotted Sandpiper 
Eurasian Collared-Dove 
Mourning Dove 
Eastern Screech-Owl 
Belted Kingfisher 
Red-headed Woodpecker 
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker 
American Kestrel 
Empidonax sp. 
Say's Phoebe 
Western Kingbird 
Blue Jay 
Black-billed Magpie 
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 
Barn Swallow 
Cliff Swallow 
Red-breasted Nuthatch 
House Wren 
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 
Townsend's Solitaire 
Veery 
Swainson's Thrush 
American Robin 
Gray Catbird 
Brown Thrasher
European Starling 
Northern Waterthrush 
Common Yellowthroat 
Yellow Warbler 
Yellow-rumped Warbler 
Wilson's Warbler 
Yellow-breasted Chat 
Green-tailed Towhee 
Chipping Sparrow 
Clay-colored Sparrow 
Lark Sparrow 
Lincoln's Sparrow 
White-crowned Sparrow 
Western Tanager 
Lazuli Bunting 
Red-winged Blackbird 
Western Meadowlark 
Yellow-headed Blackbird 
Common Grackle 
Brown-headed Cowbird 
House Finch 
American Goldfinch 
House Sparrow 

Greenbelt/LaBonte/Greenhill Tour of Laramie Hotspots, Saturday, May 24, 8:00 am

Photo by Rick Leche (Creative Commons, Flickr)

Join Laramie Audubon Society for a walk along the Laramie Greenbelt on Saturday, May 24, 2014. Meet at Coal Creek Coffee, downtown Laramie, at 8:00 am to caffeinate and carpool.  Many new summer residents and spring migrants can be found on the Greenbelt along the Laramie River.

After the Greenbelt, if time and stamina permits, we will head to LaBonte Park in Laramie, where the lake hosts migrating waterfowl and shorebirds.  Then it's off to the Greenhill Cemetery next to UW Campus where tall evergreens abound.

Call Sophie for more information.  307-742-6138.

Field Trip to Hereford Ranch, east Cheyenne, Saturday, May 17th

Sophie Osborn and Chad Olson will lead us to one of the best birding areas in southeastern Wyoming to view spring migrants. Here's a chance for you to see some birds that are more often associated with the eastern US.

Meet at 8:00am at Coal Creek Coffee, downtown Laramie, to caffeinate and carpool or
caravan. Be sure to gas up ahead of time. Our field trips last for several hours (plus driving time to and from Cheyenne) but you may leave any time if you have your own vehicle.
 









Photos courtesy of Cornell Lab website. 

Arapaho NWR field trip report

Willet by Shawn Billerman

We had a great trip to Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge on May 3, 2014. Although traces of winter still lingered, we were treated to Willets displaying, a beautiful pair of adult Bald Eagles at their nest, a Marsh Wren nest-building, and incubating Double-crested Cormorants. We saw many returning migrants, including a good diversity of ducks and grebes, two Semipalmated Plovers, and four Black-crowned Night-Herons. The trip highlight may have been the 29 beautiful Marbled Godwits foraging along the shore of Walden Reservoir.

Bird List
Canada Goose 
Gadwall 
American Wigeon 
Mallard 
Blue-winged Teal 
Cinnamon Teal 
Northern Shoveler 
Northern Pintail 
Green-winged Teal 
Canvasback
Redhead 
Ring-necked Duck 
Scaup sp.
Ruddy Duck 
Pied-billed Grebe 
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe 
Double-crested Cormorant – On nests 
American White Pelican 
Great Egret 
Black-crowned Night-Heron 
White-faced Ibis 
Bald Eagle – Pair at nest
Swainson’s Hawk – Pair copulating
Red-tailed Hawk
Golden Eagle
American Kestrel
American Coot 
Semipalmated Plover 
Killdeer 
American Avocet 
Willet – Calling and displaying
Marbled Godwit – 29 of them foraging together on bank of reservoir!
Wilson's Phalarope 
Franklin's Gull 
Bonaparte's Gull 
California Gull 
Horned Lark 
Black-billed Magpie
Common Raven
American Crow
Tree Swallow 
Cliff Swallow 
Marsh Wren 
Song Sparrow 
Red-winged Blackbird 
Yellow-headed Blackbird 
Brewer's Blackbird 

International Migratory Bird Day - May 10th

IMBD 2014 Poster

International Migratory Bird Day is an annual event to celebrate one of the greatest wonders on the planet -- bird migration! This year's theme is "Why birds matter". To learn more about the event and find related events, visit the IMBD website.

Calling All Birders for Wetlands Study

The Nature Conservancy of Wyoming and its partners are seeking birders to help with a wetlands study in Southeast Wyoming this summer. By submitting your sightings of birds at wetland sites in Goshen Hole and the Laramie Plains using eBird, you can help scientists with their study of wetlands.

Click here to see the press release from the Nature Conservancy for more information on how you can help with an important study of wetlands in Southeast Wyoming.

Yellow-headed Blackbird - Albany Co., May 2012

Note: All photos in this post are © Shawn Billerman

Liar! Liar! African bird trickery

This is an interesting story right up there with brood-parasitizing cowbirds (dumping their eggs in the nests of other birds) and kleptoparasitizing gulls (bullying other gulls so they can steal food from them).

Liar! Liar! African bird uses elaborate ruse to steal food by Will Dunham, Reuters