At 6:00 on Sunday morning it was quite brisk outside, but already the House Finches, Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, and American Robins were singing away, and thirty or so of us were ready to embrace the Dawn Chorus.  Initially, the lake was fairly quiet with only some Canada Geese, a couple of Mallards, and a single Double-crested Cormorant.  But soon, the rising sun gave an illusion of warmth (if not quite the real thing), the Song Sparrows started tuning up, a pair of Red-tailed Hawks were observed nest-building, and we were encouraged to see a Belted Kingfisher and an Osprey pursuing their piscivorous ways.

Taking a brief break at the picnic tables, we fortified ourselves with coffee and a slew of excellent breakfast items and then went on in the next couple of hours to eventually find and identify 45 species of birds (just in case you’re keeping count we had 41 species last year).

Moving up into the ponderosa woodland beside the golf course we arrived at the same time as a good number of swallows, nuthatches, woodpeckers, Pine Siskins, and Red Crossbills.  The golf course itself had some beautiful Western Bluebirds (knocked my socks off!).  We spent a fair amount of time at the little alluvial fan and cattails where Wilmot Creek empties into Evergreen Lake, and here we were rewarded with a single Spotted Sandpiper, a couple of Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, a good variety of sparrows, an American Goldfinch, a Yellow Warbler, a Common Yellowthoat, and a few Yellow-rumped Warblers.

It was in this same vicinity that we had our Incredible Bird of the Day, a Hooded Warbler!  Our bird was probably a first-year female lacking any black on the crown which most older females will eventually acquire.  However, there was a ton of bright yellow on the forehead and face and more bright yellow all down its front from chin to undertail coverts.  The back was a beautiful yellowish-green, and the long green tail had outer tail feathers with large white spots that the bird flashed periodically while foraging.  Hooded Warblers breed in the eastern U.S., and are rare spring migrants in eastern Colorado, with less than twenty having been recorded west of the Continental Divide.  With the advent of eBird sightings have increased for the eastern foothills and lower mountains of the Front Range, and there are three historical reports of Hooded Warblers having nested in Colorado (El Paso, Boulder, and Archuleta Counties).  THIS WAS A GREAT BIRD!

After all this excitement we had to go back to our picnic tables and drink more coffee and eat a second breakfast (hobbit style).  Finally, having been rejuvenated we took one final stroll before calling it a day and got to watch a pair of Say’s Phoebes and hear a Sora calling out in the cattails.  Definitely, a rewarding morning with so many familiar faces and several new faces to get to know.  Yay, Dawn Chorus!

Evergreen Lake 
May 5, 2024 
45 species
40 participants

Canada Goose  20
Mallard  3
Mourning Dove  2
Broad-tailed Hummingbird  4
Sora  1
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Double-crested Cormorant  7
Great Blue Heron  5
Turkey Vulture  1
Osprey  1
Red-tailed Hawk  2
Belted Kingfisher  2
Downy Woodpecker  2
Hairy Woodpecker (Rocky Mts.)  2
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)  5
Say’s Phoebe  3
Steller’s Jay  3
Black-billed Magpie  2
American Crow  3
Mountain Chickadee  4
Tree Swallow  32
Violet-green Swallow  12
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  8
White-breasted Nuthatch  2
Pygmy Nuthatch  7
Red-breasted Nuthatch  4
Western Bluebird  4
American Robin  14
House Finch  18
Red Crossbill  10
Pine Siskin  3
American Goldfinch  2
Clay-colored Sparrow  1
Brewer’s Sparrow  1
White-crowned Sparrow  3
Vesper Sparrow  1
Song Sparrow  10
Red-winged Blackbird  80
Brown-headed Cowbird  2
Common Grackle  17
Common Yellowthroat  1
Hooded Warbler  1
Yellow Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s)  3