On The Road – Albatrossity – Westward 2019

My first stop on trips west from here is often the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado; the Monte Vista and Alamosa refuges there can be very birdy, and it is a convenient (albeit long) day’s drive from my home in Manhattan. One of the attractions there in the fall is the large number of Swainson’s Hawks (Buteo swainsoni), which are a common hawk of the western US. At that time of year, they are starting to flock up and head south to the pampas for the winter. This handsome adult light-morph bird was telling me all about her plans for the trip south. Click here for larger image.

Swainson’s Hawks are nearly as large as Red-tailed Hawks, but have longer wings and are much more acrobatic in the air. They often catch insects on the wing, and are a delight to watch, particularly in their preferred habitat of open country and foothills. Click here for larger image.

Young Swainson’s Hawks have light heads and lack the white bib of adults. They also have a lighter iris, which gradually darkens to deep brown as they age. Click here for larger image.

There were other juvenile birds hanging out in the refuge pools as well. This is a young Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax), learning to forage and feed itself. The adult birds nearby were perfectly content to not be feeding this youngster. Click here for larger image.

The marshes at the Monte Vista refuge usually have a large population of Marsh Wrens (Cistothorus palustris), and that was true for this trip. This one was scolding me in its best harsh language, because there were some youngsters nearby and I was apparently perceived as a threat. Click here for larger image.

This is one of the youngsters, which can have mostly washed-out gray tones at that time of year. But even though this is not a good angle, you can see that it is already working on a good-looking white eyebrow. Click here for larger image.

Even though these refuges are there because they have water and marshes, much of the habitat on the refuge could best be described as high desert. That means that it is a good place to look for one of our native sparrows, the Brewer’s Sparrow (Spizella breweri). Very similar to the Clay-colored Sparrow, which is found in more northern latitudes in the summer and fall, this mostly drab bird thrives in this flat dry sagebrush habitat. Nevertheless, it is often a target species for eastern US birders when they visit the western US. The uniformly gray-brown plumage underneath, a tiny bill and a modest white eye-ring (as well as range), help distinguish it from Clay-colored Sparrow.  Click here for larger image.

Here is another view of a Brewer’s Sparrow, showing the fine dark streaks on the gray nape, an even better field mark for this species, which is not found on Clay-colored Sparrows.  Click here for larger image.

Another sparrow species with an even more prominent white eye-ring can also be found in this part of Colorado, the Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus). The best ways to distinguish this species from the Brewer’s Sparrow above would be the brownish (rather than grayish) overall tones, larger bill, streaks on upper breast and down the flanks (not visible in this picture), and a more distinctly-marked facial pattern. But I confess, these two species are very similar, and when found in the same location, they can lead to befuddlement! Click here for larger image.

After my morning at the refuge, I headed west on US-160, one of my favorite “Blue Highways” (which remains one of my favorite books). In the Four Corners region, I captured this image of a Common Raven (Corvus corax), squawking from a fencepost with the New Mexico desert and the Shiprock formation in the greater distance. I may have shared it here in the past, but it remains one of my favorite images, and so I thought it needed to be seen again. Click here for larger image.