[Douglbirds] Nighthawk nest

[ouzels8]

Atlas Alert!

            The breeding season hasn't ended yet! Today, in the Hidden Mesa Open Space, Castle Rock North Atlas block, I flushed a Nighthawk, and after peering intently for five minutes found two eggs among the stones and gravel. She had laid the eggs in a circle of cobblestones and gravel, the circle maybe 20 feet across and within an area of short grass with a few scrub oaks 50 feet away. The eggs looked like some of the stones populating the circle. 

            Lots of fledglings populated the trail: probably 12 Vesper Sparrows from 5-8 nests, plus Sharp-shinned Hawk, Canyon Wren, Mountain Bluebird, and Chipping Sparrows. 

            Last Friday Urling and I worked on four blocks around Limon. Our prizes: 

* A crisply marked Grasshopper Sparrow with a fledgling and quite a scruffy McCown's Longspur fledgling. 

* Horned Lark and Meadowlark fledglings everywhere.

* One Swainson's Hawk nest with very small white fuzzy babies; two others on nests. 

* A fledgling Loggerhead Shrike making extraordinary buzzy fussing notes. 

* A Least Flycatcher in a stream bottom near Limon. 

 

            If you're an atlaser, get out there and atlas!



Hugh Kingery
Franktown, CO 
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