Field trip report: Plains Lakes & Hutton NWR

Yesterday's inaugural field trip of the fall did not disappoint: the birds were great, the weather flat-out exceeded expectations, and the company was convivial. The major avian highlight of the trip was a juvenile Sabine's Gull at Lake Hattie. A juvenile Sanderling in fresh, crisp plumage at Meeboer was another group favorite.

Waterfowl are increasing in number on Hutton and Hoge Lakes. Lake Hattie is still relatively devoid of waterfowl but that will change over the next few weeks--and as evidenced on the trip, rare gull season is in session! Several raptor species were conspicuous, especially the Swainson's Hawks, which are amassing before their southward migration.

We saw 73 species total; below are links to the eBird checklists for each hotspot and the complete trip list.

Blake's Pond
Meeboer Lake
Twin Buttes Reservoir
Lake Hattie Reservoir
Hutton Lake NWR

Species List

Canada Goose Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Blue-winged Teal Cinnamon Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Common Merganser Ruddy Duck Pied-billed Grebe Eared Grebe Western Grebe Double-crested Cormorant American White Pelican Great Blue Heron Golden Eagle Northern Harrier Bald Eagle Swainson's Hawk

Ferruginous Hawk Virginia Rail Sora American Coot Black-necked Stilt American Avocet Killdeer Spotted Sandpiper Greater Yellowlegs Willet Lesser Yellowlegs Sanderling Baird's Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Wilson's Phalarope Red-necked Phalarope Sabine's Gull Franklin's Gull Ring-billed Gull California Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Eurasian Collared-Dove Mourning Dove

Common Nighthawk Northern Flicker Prairie Falcon Loggerhead Shrike Common Raven Violet-green Swallow Bank Swallow Barn Swallow Marsh Wren American Robin Sage Thrasher European Starling Chestnut-collared Longspur McCown's Longspur Common Yellowthroat Yellow Warbler Brewer's Sparrow Vesper Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow Yellow-headed Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird Great-tailed Grackle American Goldfinch

 

Photos of Auduboners at Lake Hattie by Libby Megna.

Upcoming Field Trip: Hutton and Plains Lakes

Lake Hattie. Photo by Libby Megna.

Join us this Saturday, September 6th as we kick off the fall season with a trip to Hutton Lake NWR and the Plains Lakes. Shawn Billerman will lead us on the search for migrant waterfowl and shorebirds. September 6th is also World Shorebird Day! We'll do our part by submitting data on the shorebirds we observe to eBird.

Meet downtown at Night Heron Books at 8 am to caffeinate and carpool. We expect to be back to Laramie around 1 pm; if you can only join us for part of the time, be prepared to drive your own vehicle.

All Laramie Audubon field trips are free and open to the public; families are welcome. Bring water and snacks, binoculars, a spotting scope if you have one, and dress for the worst weather.

Cheyenne Audubon's 40th Anniversary

The Cheyenne-High Plains Audubon Society will be celebrating its 40th anniversary September 26-28. Laramie Auduboners and all other interested persons are invited; mark your calendars and plan to celebrate with our neighboring Audubon Society!

The weekend lineup includes

• A variety of bird-related talks--including a talk by John Fitzpatrick of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology at the Saturday banquet
• A field trip to the Hereford Ranch with Ted Floyd from the American Birding Association
• Activities for kids grades K-8

The complete schedule of events is available here along with info on registration fees and location.
Most events require registration by Sept. 17. You can register online or mail in the form found at the previous link.

For more information, please contact Barb Gorges.

Brown-capped Rosy-Finch Survey

by Sophie Osborn

Black-capped Rosy-Finch. Photo © Shawn Billerman.

Hello Auduboners!

Please join Laramie Audubon for a day of hiking and bird surveying in the beautiful Snowy Mountains! We will be conducting the Laramie Audubon Society’s annual Brown-capped Rosy-Finch survey on Saturday, July 12, 2014 this year.

The Brown-capped Rosy-Finch is a species of concern because it breeds only in the Snowy Mountains and on mountain peaks in Colorado and northern New Mexico. If the current global warming trend continues, its mountain habitat islands are likely to shrink and to be invaded by other avian species that are currently excluded by the harsh conditions. Documenting how many Brown-capped Rosy-Finches are in the area and where they are feeding and nesting can help us to monitor this population and determine how the birds are faring.

Last year, the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database helped Laramie Audubon develop additional survey routes so we can get a more complete picture of where rosy-finches occur and are nesting in the Snowies. So we have lots of routes to cover! Some of these routes are off-trail and involve rigorous hiking. We hope to GPS our observation points and any nest locations that we find to make our surveys more useful, so if you have a GPS and are willing to use it, please bring it.

Please let Sophie know if you plan to join us on the survey and if you can supply your own GPS unit at sophie_osborn@hotmail.com. 

We will meet on July 12, 2014 at 7:30am at the Forest Service Visitor Center, on WY 130, approximately 1-2 miles west of Centennial WY. After an orientation session, we will divide the group into teams and will divide up the survey routes (orientation and route assignments may take as long as an hour).

What to expect:  Be prepared to spend the day hiking and looking for rosy-finches. The birds are difficult to find and are not in predictable locations so considerable hiking may be required. Some of the trails have fairly steep portions and the elevation can be challenging for some people. You may also spend time sitting in certain areas to search for or observe birds. Some survey routes are along established trails; some routes are off-trail and may be challenging.

What to look for: In spring and summer, Brown-capped Rosy-Finches often feed at the edge of snowdrifts, where seeds that were blown onto the snowpack during winter emerge from the melting snow cover. Spring winds also blow insects from lower elevations that settle onto the snow where they can be found by birds that are gathering food for their nestlings. Nests are well hidden in talus and in shallow crevices in rock faces. When seen feeding on bright snow, rosy-finches may appear to be a solid dark color. In better light, their light-pink flanks and rumps are visible and they show a flash of pink in their wings when in flight. 

What to bring:  Binoculars and/or spotting scope, a field guide, a GPS unit if you have one, warm clothes and rain gear, good hiking shoes, lunch and snacks, water, and sunblock. We will provide route maps.

Field Trip Report: Sagebrush Songbird Nesting Research

Big thanks to Jason for taking us out to his PhD study area in the sagebrush sea and to him and his crew for being such wonderful tour guides! We saw Brewer's Sparrow, Vesper Sparrow, Horned Lark, and Sage Thrasher nests and young at a variety of stages - eggs, nestlings, and fledgings.

It was a beautiful day with larkspur, lupine, bitterroot, and Sego lilies all in bloom. We enjoyed wide-open vistas while being serenaded by cicadas.


 Jason and his eagle-eyed crew showed us how they find sagebrush songbird nests, including the impressive feat of relocating them with just UTMs and a sketch of the area. We successfully tracked down a radio-tagged Brewer’s Sparrow fledgling. They appear to depend heavily on camouflage to keep them safe during this life phase, as the one we tracked sat quietly in a sagebrush shrub while we all got a good look at close range.

We ended the day with Jason banding and placing radio-backpacks on Brewer’s Sparrow nestlings. Despite their tiny size, they were only a few days away from leaving the nest. We all got to take part, with members of the group selecting the bands, preparing them to be placed on the nestlings’ legs, and recording data. 

Upcoming field trip: Songbird research site

by Anika Mahoney

Join us for a day-long field trip to observe and take part in songbird nesting ecology research! UWY PhD candidate Jason Carlisle will take us on a tour of his research sites in the Jeffrey City area.

When: Saturday, June 28 7am - 5pm (or return sooner if in your own vehicle)

Vesper Sparrow. Photo © Shawn Billerman.

What to expect:

• See active nests (likely nestlings by that date, maybe some still on eggs) of Brewer's Sparrow, and likely Sage Thrasher and Vesper Sparrow. 
• See areas mowed this past winter to improve Greater Sage-Grouse habitat.
• See songbird-fledgling-sized radio transmitters and try your hand at radio telemetry. We should have a handful of radioed Brewer's Sparrow fledglings to relocate.
• Beautiful sagebrush steppe!

It's an approximately 3 hour drive from Laramie to Jeffrey City. We will meet at 7am on Saturday, June 28 at Coal Creek Coffee downtown to carpool/caravan.

Please bring: Snacks, lunch, and plenty of water. Be prepared for hot temperatures and variable weather –hats, sunscreen, bug repellant, rain gear, etc.
Optional: Snack/late lunch on the way home at the Split Rock Café in Jeffrey City.

RSVP: Anika Mahoney at laramie.audubon@gmail.com. Minimum group size: 5 participants.

Want to turn this into a weekend trip? Camping is available in Jeffrey City (where Jason’s crew camps in trailers), and the Green Mountain Motel recently reopened here in town.  I'm told it’s clean and costs $55 per night.  The Split Rock Bar/Cafe has food/drink, restrooms, free internet, etc.

June eBird Challenge

Pine Siskin gathering nest material. Cassia County, ID.

Each month the folks at eBird issue a specific data-collection challenge to birders in order to improve the eBird database and our knowledge of birds. This month's challenge is to submit breeding codes with your complete checklists. Time you spend in the field this month will yield valuable information on the timing of breeding, location of breeding, and number of breeding birds. This info can greatly increase our understanding of Wyoming birds in particular, where data is sparse both geographically and temporally.

Savannah Sparrow nest. Churchill, MB.

Contributing breeding bird data is extremely easy: any observation of a singing male, or an adult carrying nest material or food for young, can be noted in an eBird checklist. You don't have to invest a ton of time finding the actual nest--although if you do find a nest, that's awesome because it confirms breeding. A detailed explanation of the breeding codes and how to use them is here. Well worth reading before you start using breeding codes, so that you know which behaviors fall into each category. Also see an example checklist. In that list there are breeding codes for pretty much every species because I'm a huge fan of breeding codes, but breeding info for just a few species is valuable too! Got an American Robin nest in your backyard? eBird it!

Brown Creeper at nest. Lake County, OR.

Northern Pintail nest. Churchill, MB.

All photos © Shawn Billerman

Field trip report: Hutton NWR & Chimney Rock

The hubbub of bird breeding activity was (in my opinion, at least) the highlight of today's field trip to Hutton National Wildlife Refuge and Chimney Rock. We observed nestlings in each of two Ferruginous Hawk nests near Hutton, Black-crowned Night Herons carrying sticks, as well as White-faced Ibises and a Northern Harrier working on nests at Rush Lake. All this plus the Yellow-headed Blackbird philharmonic.

Ferruginous Hawk - Sand Creek Road, Albany Co., WY (photo by Shawn Billerman)

We detected a total of 56 species; links to the eBird checklists for each hotspot and the complete trip list are below.

Birding at Hutton Lake National Wildlife Refuge (photo by Libby Megna)

Chimney Rock (photo by Libby Megna)

Sand Creek Rd
Hutton NWR
Sand Creek Rd again
Chimney Rock area

Species List

Canada Goose Gadwall Mallard Blue-winged Teal Cinnamon Teal Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Lesser Scaup Ruddy Duck Pied-billed Grebe Eared Grebe Western Grebe Double-crested Cormorant American White Pelican Black-crowned Night-Heron White-faced Ibis Golden Eagle

Northern Harrier Bald Eagle Swainson's Hawk Ferruginous Hawk American Coot American Avocet Killdeer Willet dowitcher sp. Wilson's Phalarope California Gull Forster's Tern Rock Pigeon Common Nighthawk Broad-tailed Hummingbird American Kestrel Common Raven Horned Lark Tree Swallow

Violet-green Swallow Barn Swallow Cliff Swallow Rock Wren Sage Thrasher McCown's Longspur Common Yellowthroat Yellow Warbler Green-tailed Towhee Brewer's Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Song Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Western Meadowlark Yellow-headed Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird Great-tailed Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird

"MOONBIRD" MAKES ANOTHER APPEARANCE

Migration never ceases to amaze me.... This is from the June Birding Community E-bulletin

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At least one individual Red Knot has traveled from the tip of South America to the top of Canada after passing through the famous stopover site of the Delaware Bay for 21 years. This knot is nicknamed "Moonbird," because the bird has already flown the equivalent distance between the Earth and the moon and more than halfway back during its epic migrations. The bird has been making the trip for over two decades and this spring was observed on 25 May at Reeds Beech, New Jersey, with its identifiable orange-colored leg-band and the number "B-95" on it.

Red Knots feasting on horseshoe crab eggs in Delaware Bay have dropped in numbers from over 100,000 to perhaps under 25,000 in about a dozen years. Not surprisingly the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced an extension (to 15 June 2014) for public comment concerning a proposed Threatened listing of the rufa subspecies of the Red Knot under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

You can read more on Moonbird here.

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...