Chatfield State Park sits at the confluence of Deer Creek, the South Platte River, and Plum Creek. Upstream from Chatfield, Plum Creek has two major tributaries. West Plum Creek which headwaters in the Rampart Range and East Plum Creek which headwaters in the Palmer Divide south of Castle Rock. These two come together at Sedalia before continuing north to Chatfield. Where Plum Creek enters Chatfield there is about a two-mile section of rich riparian habitat before it empties into the reservoir at what is known as the Plum Creek delta – an area of wandering stream beds, wetlands, and ephemeral ponds. Upstream from this is an extensive cottonwood gallery forest interspersed with large cattail marshes, stands of willows, Russian olives and some open prairie. This portion of the park appears, from my perspective, to be the least visited and hence the most attractive. Fortuitously, because of its habitat mosaic, it always seems to have a good variety of birds.
It will be around mid-October when our large variety of overwintering waterfowl start to really pour in, just about the same time as the Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, and American White Pelicans decide to head south. So, on Saturday we didn’t have a huge variety of waterfowl. Also, for the most part, the Snowy Egrets along with many shorebirds, hummingbirds, flycatchers, and other passerines have already pulled up stakes. Nonetheless, we scored over forty species, and we were never short of good entertainment.
Great sightings included two Wood Ducks, a perched adult Peregrine Falcon, a little group of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a single Sage Thrasher, nine American Pipits, a single Lincoln’s Sparrow, seven Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and a single Wilson’s Warbler. Especially intriguing were the large numbers of Lesser Goldfinch and Yellow-rumped Warblers we encountered – apparently around every corner. Then, while large flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds are not an uncommon occurrence it was wonderful getting to watch a large flock of almost all females – accompanied by just a few males and our small group of Yellow-headed Blackbirds. They were leap-frogging and hop-scotching their way very low along the muddy bank of the creek, and just kept coming and coming. Most entertaining!
Finally, perhaps saving the best for last, we stopped by a prairie dog town by the Plum Creek entrance to the park where we were able to get great looks at four Burrowing Owls. Wowzers!!
Plum Creek Nature Area
Sep 23, 2024
44 species (+2 other taxa)
Canada Goose 54
Wood Duck 2
Blue-winged Teal 5
Cinnamon Teal 2
Blue-winged/Cinnamon Teal 2
Mallard 19
Common Merganser 3
Western Grebe 3
Eurasian Collared-Dove 1
Mourning Dove 9
hummingbird sp. 1
Killdeer 2
Ring-billed Gull 153
Double-crested Cormorant 8
American White Pelican 33
Great Blue Heron 9
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Burrowing Owl 4
Belted Kingfisher 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 11
American Kestrel 1
Peregrine Falcon 1
Western Wood-Pewee 1
Say’s Phoebe 4
Blue Jay 2
Black-billed Magpie 8
American Crow 1
Common Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee 9
White-breasted Nuthatch 4
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 3
European Starling 14
Sage Thrasher 1
American Robin 16
American Pipit 9
House Finch 46
Lesser Goldfinch 19
American Goldfinch 4
Song Sparrow 13
Lincoln’s Sparrow 1
Yellow-headed Blackbird 7
Western Meadowlark 4
Red-winged Blackbird 135
Yellow-rumped Warbler 19
Wilson’s Warbler 1