A marvelous spring morning was had at South Platte Park; quite chilly to begin with, but it got very nice as the day progressed and we had some wonderful birds!  For starters we had eleven duck species.  Northern Shovelers typically filter out food items by sweeping their head side to side, and also, quite typically, they can be found in large groups swimming in tight rotating circles which helps bring food to the surface.  Sometimes individual ducks will do this on their own, and we see this same behavior with phalaropes.  Other ducks (in our case it was Buffleheads) will often gather around the swirling mass of Shovelers and take advantage of the available food.  We also got to see good numbers of Hooded and Common Mergansers.  All the ducks are looking to be in top form for the breeding season – the reds so red, the greens so green, the blues so blue, etc.  Beautiful!  Among the most striking we saw were two male Ruddy Ducks.  In contrast to most ducks, these guys do not get their brilliant breeding plumage in the fall, but they only gain their breeding brilliance beginning in early March.  At that time the males acquire bright sky-blue bills, brilliant white cheeks, glossy black cap and nape, and bright reddish-chestnut body.  They can really knock your socks off!

As for the bird-of-the-day we saw five Horned Grebes.  Grebes superficially resemble other diving birds that feed on small aquatic animals as do loons and coots, but there are enough differences for them to have their own family, the Podicipedidae – podicis = “rear end” and ped = “foot” in reference to the placement of their legs towards the rear of the body (great for diving, not so great for walking).  There are seven North American species, four of which breed in Colorado and two others which pass through Colorado during migration.  Horned Grebes belong to this latter group, showing up in the fall from mid-October to mid-November and in the spring from mid-March to mid-May.  So, we caught our birds right at the beginning of when we can generally start to expect them.  In their winter plumage they are relatively non-descript being black, gray, white, and a little smudgy, but, as they migrate north, they begin to acquire a strikingly different breeding plumage: chestnut neck and flanks, and black head with a large erectable yellow swath (the “horn”) extending up and back from their red eye.  Some of our birds on Saturday looked to still be in full winter plumage, while a couple of them were starting to get a few whisps of yellow showing behind the eye and a small chestnut lore (the area between the bill and the eye).

The composition of our local birds is starting to change on an almost daily basis, so try and get out and figure out who may have just arrived to stay and breed, e.g. Tree Swallow, who may have just arrived and are simply passing through on their way farther north, e.g. Horned Grebe, and who may have already vamoosed out of town and we won’t see them again until next winter, e.g. Rough-legged Hawk.

Good birding!  Chuck

South Platte Park–C470 area, Mar 18, 2023
Number of Species: 29
Number of participants: 8

40 Canada Goose
120 Northern Shoveler
11 Gadwall
8 American Wigeon
20 Mallard
2 Green-winged Teal
3 Lesser Scaup
40 Bufflehead
14 Common Goldeneye
16 Hooded Merganser
44 Common Merganser
2 Ruddy Duck
5 Horned Grebe
4 Killdeer
25 Ring-billed Gull
1 Great Blue Heron
2 Bald Eagle
3 Red-tailed Hawk
3 Belted Kingfisher
16 Northern Flicker
2 American Kestrel
2 Black-billed Magpie
7 American Crow
26 Black-capped Chickadee
9 American Robin
3 House Finch
8 Song Sparrow
1 Spotted Towhee
15 Red-winged Blackbird