This is an appropriately named dragonfly for a cattle ranch, Black Saddlebags. While not birds, dragonflies are spectacular insects. They have the best eyesight of all insects. All male dragonflies spend a large amount of time searching for females and most male territories includes ideal habitat for egg-laying. Black Saddlebags males have territories that are about 100 feet long. They often fly at waist height, near shoreline, and out over open water. This is a highly migratory species not showing up in the northern parts of their range until summer, which makes them ideal to study when the birding comes to a slowdown during summer months. When males and females fly in tandem, the females lay one egg at a time and bass have been observed following them, a tasty morsel for a fish.
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A Western Kingbird perches on the metal cowboy, welcoming all to Chico Basin Ranch.
The Colorado Native Plant Society and the Colorado State University Extension office hosted grass identification workshop on the Chico this weekend. People from all along the front range came to learn about all of our native grasses. It was a wonderful learning opportunity, followed by a delicious Chico burger fresh from the grill. We really enjoyed having them here!
We celebrated the Fourth of July in true Chico style- we fished all afternoon for Bluegill and Crappie in the Rose and Upper Twin Ponds, and then headed over to the HQ Lake for a fish fry. The day was sunny and warm, so the cool water from the ponds felt great! Fish were rising everywhere and we were all switching flies like crazy to see who could catch the most fish. We also went swimming with some of the horses, played lacrosse and had a wonderful fireworks show after supper- so much fun!
Over at the Casita, a female Black-chinned Hummingbird found the ideal spot to build its nest, on top of a rope hanging from the ceiling of the open garage. The first nest was built in May 2009 and there were two very large nestlings in the nest on 28 June 09 (1st photo). This year, a female, probably the same returning bird, added a second layer to the nest (2nd photo) as shown on 24 May 10. Sometime thereafter, a third layer was added (3rd photo on 1 July) making it possibly the tallest Black-chinned Hummingbird nest ever. Hopefully this nesting attempt is successful. Possibly even more interesting is the number of rodent bones, including small Peromyscus skulls, incorporated into the nest(s).
On July first, 17 young birders aged 13-17 from the American Birding Association's Young Birder Camp spent the morning at the Chico. They came from all parts of the U.S. and Canada to learn about Colorado birds. Not only did these kids want to see the specialty birds of the Chico, but they were also interested in beetles, bugs, butterflies, and dragonflies. Five adults, including well-respected professional bird guides from Cape May, NJ, Michael O'Brien and artist Louise Zematis, tutored the kids and asked them challenging questions about birds. Many of the participants are home-schooled and many are planning on a career in biology. 