Here in the foothills, we are used to large dumps of snow from up-slope storms in April and May, but this last storm (20-21 May) seemed rather late. As many insectivorous birds are some of the latest migrants to arrive back in our area, these late storms have the potential to negatively affect their survival and subsequent reproductive season. These late storms force birds to curtail their northward migration and while they search vigorously for critical food resources.
In our yard during this last storm, we had a wayward Spotted Towhee and Lincoln’s Sparrow scrounging for seeds. Down the hill, birders observed a lot of “fall-out” migrants, including a large number of Red-necked Phalaropes (a boreal- and Arctic-breeding shorebird). A Black Tern was found on Evergreen Lake. Wind patterns provided by Bryan Guarente on CoBirds showed how these migrants were running into strong northerly winds north of Pueblo.
Late spring storms also force some of the birds breeding at higher elevations to descend to more hospitable altitudes. Swallows and bluebirds that have begun their breeding cycle at Elk Meadow abandon their territories to seek emerging insects on or adjacent to down-slope reservoirs and ponds. More than once during these types of storms, I have encountered large groups of American Pipits and White-crowned Sparrows that have apparently skedaddled downhill from their alpine nesting areas.
Hummingbirds always seem to ride out these storms better than I anticipate, although we had one female camped out on the feeder until dusk on the Friday night of the storm. I am sure the night was spent in a state of torpor. Saturday morning we were met gladly by the three hummers that we knew had been. Throughout the day, robins, Black-headed Grosbeaks and juncos buzzed around feeders trying to bulk up to handle the winter-like weather. And of course, Pine Siskins descended and wiped out the nyjer feeder during the day. We postponed our next box monitoring on the snowy weekend, but I hope our next visit demonstrates the resiliency of our birds to these weather events.
