[Douglbirds] McClain Pit

[Hugh Kingery]

The McClain Pit is getting lively again. That's the gravel pit 1/4 mile south of Colo. 86 on Castlewood Canyon Road.

This morning Urling and I saw a Forster's Tern there, perched on a little sand bar and flying over the water. And Urling watched a Ring-billed Gull catch a fish (or maybe frog), 3 inches long, so this sterile-looking site has some food for all the birds that hang out there. 

Every time we stopped, all summer, we have counted 4-10 gulls, 1-5 Great Blue Herons, and a dozen Killdeer.

And a request to help us with our Breeding Bird Atlas block. The pit and maybe a quarter-mile south lies in a block that Urling and I are working (with great fun -- we've recorded around 94 species in the block). South of the pit gate, along Castlewood Canyon Road, the mining company built a berm so that you can't see into the pit. They planted a bunch of trees, most of which died. For the past week we've seen 1-4 Cedar Waxwings in one or another of those dead saplings. 

If you drive Castlewood Canyon Road, we'd appreciate it if you'd go on south and look in the saplings to see if any juvenile waxwings appear. They have streaky breasts, but otherwise look like grayish waxwings. Let us know if you succeed. 

Another species of interest that we've seen in the block: Blue Grosbeak. About once a week we walked the trail that starts at the Walker Pit (north of Colo. 86 on Walker Road, the next one west of Castlewood Canyon Road). It goes south, parallel to Walker Road, under the bridge over Colo. 86. At least two pairs, maybe three, of Blue Grosbeaks probably nested there. We haven't managed to see anything more than a pair and territorial behavior, but the birds have stayed for most of the summer. Last week we saw a pair, surely with young out of the nest but we couldn't see any, south of the 86 bridge, just before the trail comes to a foot bridge. In the field of thistles east of the trail.

Blue Grosbeaks have a song that, to our ears, resembles a Warbling Vireo. Sort of a sweet warble, and while we inspected the thistles last week, the male sang while the female fed and -- we thought, picked up food and carried it into the thistles where we're convinced some young fledgling grosbeaks lurked and wouldn't show themselves.

Hugh Kingery
Franktown, Colorado
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