Catching the McQuades

I returned to Fort Collins with one day before my next scheduled trip to West Texas, beginning May 14, 2023. May 13 is prime spring migration in north-central Colorado and it was Global Migratory Bird Day, so of course I had to go birding. 

The GroupMe text chain for Larimer County sounded early. A Kentucky Warbler from a few days earlier had been relocated at Prospect Ponds Natural Area. I had seen a couple of these along the Texas coast but I was still hoping to get a photo of one. Cliff Hendrick agreed to meet me there early in the afternoon. When I arrived to the parking area, a small flock of Clay-colored Sparrow (643) were singing. A few minutes later I heard the unique song of the Western Wood-pewee (644). After three hours searching, I never did see the Kentucky Warbler. Another rarity announcement text led me to a cooperative Field Sparrow (645). Later in the day, I followed another GroupMe alert to the Nix Natural Area where a Gray Flycatcher had been spotted.  Not new but again better documentation was desired. There I met Alex Smilor, one of the student leaders of the Colorado State University Field Ornithologists. Together we tracked down the Gray Flycatcher and I got great photos. Our phones sounded again with a GroupMe text. Cole Wild reported a rare Piping Plover at Kechter Pit wetland. Alex had never seen one so I invited him to join me in the search. When we arrived, a throng of birders had already gathered. We quickly relocated the endangered plover with assistance from the other birders. It had been joined by a Sanderling, another uncommon shorebird. It was now late in the day and I realized I only needed three more Biggest Year Birds to tie the McQuades for first place in the Lower 48 and the ABA Area competitions. I invited Alex to join me in a visit to the shortgrass prairie about 15 miles north of Fort Collins. By the time we arrived, the sun had set. But the grassland birds were singing like crazy. Lark Buntings (646) had finally arrived from their wintering areas in northern Mexico. 

I dropped off Alex at his apartment near campus after 9 PM. Then I called Joe Kipper. He and Archie were doing a big day and I had told him I would join them for owling in Rist Canyon, just west of Fort Collins. I met them at my house on the west side of town about 9:30 and figured it might be an interesting evening when we heard a shorebird flight call overhead. Clouds had rolled in and the low ceiling was pushing migrants lower than usual in the sky. I identified the calling shorebird as a Lesser Yellowlegs, a new species for my yard. (I’ve observed over 160 species around my residential yard in my 25 years living there). When we arrived at our owling spot on the backside of Rist Canyon hill (near the Stove Prairie school), we were amazed to hear more shorebirds migrating low overhead. There was a constant stream of Spotted Sandpipers singing overhead. We estimated several hundred birds called overhead while we listened for about an hour. Eventually we also heard the soft hoot of the Flammulated Owl (647) and the repetitive rising hoot of a Long-eared Owl! 

Among the shorebirds migrating over Stove Prairie (really a montane valley at 7500’ elevation), we heard another Lesser Yellowlegs.  And a Sora. At roughly 11:00 PM, a shorebird called loudly overhead. I didn’t recognize it. It alternated between a single note and a multi note call that reminded me of Upland Sandpiper. It’s unfamiliarity piqued my interest. I exclaimed to the others “Record that call!” I hit the record button in my Merlin app just as is it gave its last two notes before going silent. I hoped that those two notes would be sufficient either for Merlin to render an identification or for an identifiable spectrogram once uploaded to our checklist at eBird.org. As we drove back to Fort Collins, I played flight calls of unusual shorebirds from the Sibley Guide app and was surprised to find a similar call with the foraging call of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, which was recorded in Australia . This is an Australasian species that I have never seen or heard and that has been observed in the state only twice historically. Imagine my disappointment when I tried listening to my Merlin recording and discovered that an error prevented the app from creating an audible recording. This was “the one that got away.” I live to find rare birds but I would have to let this one go. Without a recording to compare with, I do not trust my own brain to accurately recall the sound.  

 

Without the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper to vault me into sole possession of first place, I was content with a three way tie with the McQuades at 607 species for the ABA Area and Lower 48 lists. Hopefully I will find a stray Sharp-tailed Sandpiper during my upcoming planned travel to Adak Island far out on the Aleutian Island chain of Alaska. I will make this voyage May 27-31 with a group of 5 others including…. You guessed it…..David and Tammy McQuade.