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.

Common Nighthawks roost on fenceposts and on any horizontal limb without too many branhes.  For the past 10 years, birders who run breeding bird survey routes have been saying that this species is declining.  I didn't think it to be true on the Chico, but this year numbers around Holmes are way down with only a couple birds easily seen. 



This male is easy to I.D. because of its white chin and broad white subterminal tail band.  If this bird was a female it would show a buff throat patch and no white subterminal tail band.  Nighthawks are crepuscular, feeding at dawn and dusk and also on cloudy days.  A few can be seen flying over the larger ponds on the Chico.  Thier mouth can expand to an incredible size and surrounding their mouths are specialized feathers called rictal bristles that help funnel flying insects into their mouths as nighthawks circle through clouds of insects.

As the song says, "summertime and the livin' is easy..." Many of Chico's resident and summer-only birds are now feeding young.  I saw a single juvenile Scaled Quail with a female today. Hopefully other species are doing much better.  A Burrowing Owl flew over me, neverous because I was near their nesting burrow, a giveaway because of the amount of whitewash on the rim.  In another few weeks babies should be poking their heads out for their first real look at their new world.  Finding Burrowing Owl pellets is always fun becuase it is another reminder to me of the food  these owls consume.  Much of the pellets are full of the hard beetle carpaces but there are often some small rodent bones in them too.

Migration continues at the Chico.  Orchard Orioles have returned and hopefully a few pairs will stay to nest.  The adult Swainson's Thrushes have been replaced by second year birds, the species still the most frequently caught at the RMBO banding station. 

At Rose Pond, a male Black-and-white Warbler was singing (photograph).  Carefull observation will reveal its long bill (although this one has open bill and is singing) that is used to probe in the fissures of tree bark.  This study in black and white is often seen creeping on the trunks of thick-barked trees.

The length of the yellow undertail coverts on  the Connecticut Warbler are strikingly long (bird on the right), a characteristic that is difficult to detect when a bird is not in the hand because this species, at least on its breeding grounds, spends much time walking on the ground in dense undergrowth.  Some species are better observed and photographed in migration than when on their territories at their breeding grounds.  Connecticut Warbler is a specialty of the spruce bogs of the boreal forest and although they breed directly north of CO in Canada, their migration route is normally far east of the Mississippi River Valley.  Photograph is courtesy of Steve Brown

17 May 2010 will be remembered as the day the very rare Connecticut Warbler landed in a mist net at the RMBO Banding Station.  With fewer than 10 accepted records for Colorado, few would have predicted this bird would find its way to the Chico.  This species is often listed on most people's Top-10 want-to-see  list. 



Connecticut Warbler is one of four species in the genus Oporornis and it is the most difficult one to find, even on its breeding grounds, because of its retiring nature.  As many as 13 lucky birders got to see the bird in the dense olives after the bird was banded by Brian Gibbons and released. Two characteristics about this bird stand out.  The complete white eye ring and the very long yellow undertail coverts which separate it from our common migrant and  breeder, MacGillivray's Warbler which has upper and lower white eye arcs for comparison.  The other look-alike, Mourning Warbler, another Chico rarity, has no eye arcs and no eye ring.

Aptly named, Yellow Warbler is a common breeder on the Chico.  Males started to arrive in big numbers this week and they can be easily seen feeding below eye level by the small headquarters pond where they are catching small insects just above the water.  The second part of the scientific name, petechia, is from the Latin meaning "red spots on skin" a reference to the red streaks on the male's breast.  In the mangrove regions of the Americas, Yellow Warblers have chestnut heads making for a stunning yellow and chestnut warbler often called "Mangrove Warbler."

Sometimes passed over as too common, the Common Yellowthroat is one of the classic breeders in the cattail marsh.  Fiesty and aggressive, males are territorial and will chase most other marsh nesters.  The first part of the bird's scientific name, Geothlypis is Greek for "of the earth".  Most people know this bird first by its loud song often described as witchity, witchity, witchity, witchity".  One of the most common warblers, it ranges from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to Mexico.  Males are known to breed with multiple females, a mating system called polygyny. 

Worm-eating Warbler photograph is courtesy of Brandon Percival.



Kelly Shipe took her mother birding on the Chico on Sunday for Mother's Day. Her present to her mom was the second Ranch record of Worm-eating Warbler and only the second one ever recorded in Pueblo County (the other Chico bird was in El Paso county).  The scientific name of this bird is Helmitheros vermivorus that translates as worm-eater and to devour.  However, this warbler rarely eats earthworms but instead will eat smooth caterpillars.  On its breeding grounds across the central U.S. it spends most of its time on the ground so it was unusual that Kelly found the Chico bird at the very top of a tall cottonwood tree.  Worm-eating Warbler places its nest on the ground and while foraging it often can be seen investigating the insides of curled dead leaves.  It is often considered as a dead leaf specialist.









 

The first Tennessee Warbler on the Chico this spring was seen in the headquarters area in the magic willows.  A flock of Willets stopped to feed along the extensive mud flats.  A Rose-breasted Grosbeak magically appeared in the trees above the Banding Station and the first Northern Waterthrush of the season was heard in the seep between the Banding Station and the Casita.



Although sometimes we take bird names for granted, some bird names accurately describe one or more of a bird's body parts.  Take Semipalmated Sandpiper and Semipalmated Plover for example.  The pictured Semipalmated Plover (1st of the year at the Chico) shows us how it gets its name.  The webbing on the birds right leg is not fully webbed, only partially so.  Thus the name semipalmated.

An early nester like most species that use tree cavities, the Great Horned Owl is a common breeding bird on the Chico wherever there is a tree cavity large enough to house these large owls.  When no tree cavity is available, these huge predators use abandoned hawk or squirrel nests and brave the elements. 



This individual probably has young birds in the nest hole with her.  Because it was such a cold day for mid-April the adult stayed in the nest to provide some warmth to the nestlings.  Notice the adult's tail is bent upwards; a large bird in a relatively small tree cavity.

With yesterday's warm temperatures, a flock of Cedar Waxwings switched their diets from fruits (Russian olives) to insects.  About 20 birds perched low in the olive trees, hawking small flying insects close to the ground.



Upper photograph is of a first year bird because the "wax" is seen only on the tail tips.  After multiple years of ingesting lots of fruits, waxwings, and only waxwings, concentrate carotenoid pigments from the birds' diets in modified wing secondary feathers (see 2nd photogrph). The red tips are actually extensions of the birds' feathers.  The same carotenoid piegments will produce entirely red feather coloration in other bird species.  The waxwing yellow tail tips are yellow carotenoids and incoporated in the vanes of the waxwing tail feathers.  In the eastern states and provinces, an exotic honeysuckle species has become a common ornamental planting beging in the 1960s.  Cedar Waxwings like the honeysuckle fruits but the carotenoids in the exotic honeysuckles produces waxwing tails that are orange, not yellow in color.

 

Common Goldeneye with Tundra Swan

Early spring migration is in progress! With most of the Chico lakes now being ice-free, waterfowl are pouring through in big numbers.  Saturday witnessed the first-ever record of Tundra Swan on the Chico with two first-of-the year birds on Headquarters Pond.  Tundra Swans are uncommon in Colorado, breeding in shallow arctic tundra ponds where they eat tubers of many plant species.  Their long necks enable them to reach into shallow water for their food at depths greater than dabbling ducks can, so they exploit deeper water than most non-diving waterfowl.  In winter, Tundra Swans appear mostly on both coasts.  Because most shallow Colorado lakes and ponds freeze by mid-December, few Tundra Swans spend the winter here. 



Another rare Chico migrant, a male Barrow's Goldeneye also appeared on HQ Pond and the first Cinnamon Teal of the season also put in an appearance.

“Oscar Appelt Senior, a Texas cattleman, bought the 150,000 acre former Drinkard and Emmert ranch and other ranch property south of Colorado Springs in 1945 for $300,000 cash.  He lived there for nine years.  He died in about 1954.  In 1949, the Red McMahon and Mike Levis ranches were purchased as well and increased the Appelt holdings to 175,000 acres, an area of 20 x 25 miles.  It was planned to be stocked with 2,500 Herefords.  This area has Black Squirrel, Chico, and Willow Creeks running through it.”

This concludes the last of the Chico Basin Ranch history series.  Hope you have enjoyed looking back in time.  Be looking forward to life on the ranch beginning again next week.

“Onto the sand-sage covered dunes, the riparian areas, and the short vegetation of the western lands, early Native Americans, then settlers made their human footprints.   





(Picture taken 2/16/2010 of an arrowhead found by Raphael, our intern from Germany.)



The presence of water defined the Cherokee Trail that led hopeful prospectors from the Oklahoma Territory across the Chico Basin to the gold fields west of Denver, following paths used for centuries by Native Americans.  Some stayed on to produce food to feed the miners.  The settlers superimposed artificial boundaries on the ancient soils, with their native grasses, bison, pronghorn (picture courtesy of Duke Phillips), deer, and elk. 











Fences (picture courtesy of Sidonie White) went up and in the 1870’s and 1880’s early ranches that would become the present-day Chico Basin Ranch were established: the Holmes, the Rose, the Love, the May, the Carpenter, and the Bar JH.  The sub-irrigated meadows were hayed, the meadow sod and adobe clays used to build houses and outbuildings.  Several of these houses still are used today (the headquarters sod office, the manager’s house at headquarters and the house at the May Camp-pictured-both made of adobe). 







Several reservoirs built in the 1880’s, and still in use today, impounded water for  irrigation of extensive hay meadows, gardens, and trees—and for fish (picture of May Camp pond overlooking Pikes Peak)!”

“The eastern side of the bowl is covered with ancient sand dunes, still moving and morphing even today.  Water is relatively shallow beneath the sands.   The central part of the bowl has soil with more clay and silt, and here is where the water comes to the surface producing sub-irrigated meadows, marshes, and intermittent streams along a north-south axis.  On the west side, the water-holding layers dip deep and the soil is “tight”, dries hard, is so slippery when wet, and summer rainstorms produce flooding.”







Picture of “the Sands” (with prairie dogs) and muddy truck taken by Sidonie White.

Today starts the first day of the Chico Basin History series.  Along with various ranch updates, this series will mainly focus around the history of the ranch taken from a documental overview.  Later the information will be from different people who lived on the ranch at one time.  Please enjoy learning and let us know if there is anything more that you may be able to add to our records.

“The elongated bowl that is the Chico Basin is defined by water, which in turn is defined by the Basin’s location east of the Front Range of Colorado, and geologically, by the sedimentary layers beneath it.  Its rain shadow location results in semi-arid conditions most years, arid in some and much wetter in others.   In other words, water is undependable as far as precipitation goes.  However, the lands subsurface layers, which dip and fold beneath, are the source of what makes this place unique on the plains.  As water falls on Monument Ridge far to the north, these layers catch and direct the subsurface water underground until it reaches the basin, where it comes to the surface as perched springs, marshes, and creeks.”

Picture:  marshy area by pond above May Camp taken 2/16/2010.

The sun is rising over the prairie, exposing the ground well covered in snow.  Yesterday, the snow was very pretty and peaceful falling down all throughout the day (and night).  Just slow and steady, each flake it its own unique pattern.  Into the night it continued and we woke up to a white wonderland.  If the temperatures get warm, we are going to have a lot of mud, but looking at the bright side, we will have more moisture.

The mountains have been hiding behind the fog and clouds for the last couple of days as the snow has moved in and stayed for quite a while.  Nothing compared to the people in the mountains, but it is quite a lot of snow for here.

Today, is the first day since Saturday the sun is beginning to peak through the clouds.

On Saturday, nature was covered in a layer of an icy frost.  It was really neat to see the individual icicles clinging to fences and plants. This cholla looks as though it is drooping from the cold and weather.  It was a really gray and wet day on Saturday as it was getting ready to snow.



            

Rose Pond is starting to open from its winter ice and the first northbound ducks are using it.  Redheads, Canvasbacks, Gadwalls, and Ring-necked Ducks are diving for aquatic vegetation in the openings.  Most duck species are sexually dimorphic, where the males and females support different plumages.  These Redheads are good examples.   Silent during most of the year, males are starting to give their catlike meow sounds now, only given during pair-up and courtship.  Redheads are diving ducks who can go as deep as 10 feet to look for submerged leaves and stems which comprise up to 90 percent of their diet.  Redheads breed in Colorado and north, but not on the Chico. 

Tess and I had a very successful conference in Billings.  We met a lot of really nice people who gave us inspiration and ideas to take home.

This week, Tess Phillips Leach and I, are in Montana at the National Dude Ranchers’ Association Annual Conference.

 http://www.duderanch.org/

When looking out the window over the prairie today, a beautiful clean white blanket of snow can be seen beneath a low hanging fog.  This is a very comforting feeling knowing that there is going to be more moisture this year!  Even with the snow, the crew still plans to move cattle to a new pasture later this afternoon depending on the weather.

It is snowing today!  The ground is slowly becoming covered in a blanket of white.  It is the type of snow that just gently floats to the ground.  It is very pretty!

This is a picture that Chase took of the cattle at the south end of the ranch.  As you can see, they were very excited to be receiving protein tubs.  Great timing with the storm and all.

Yesterday and today the crew is working together to cut up the meat that we butchered at Thanksgiving.  We finished 8 sides yesterday and will finish up 4 more today.  This is the finishing process of a hard year’s work.  It is very rewarding to have a tangible and very tasty product.  We are now all blessed to have our freezers full of beef for the year!

We have the Lonestar Schoolhouse available for learning projects, history lessons…..the sky is the limit here.  This historical old schoolhouse has been renovated to keep it alive and going so that future generations can learn and see firsthand what it was like to go to school a long time ago.  It is even equip with an outhouse for a true understanding of the olden days.  This provides a great opportunity for children and adults, alike, to book a time to visit the schoolhouse please call the ranch office (719) 683.7960.  We offer curriculum for all ages with all different disciplines.  These skulls are used as a way to teach about grassland/herbivore co evolution.  Next week, Mr. Lee Derr will be bringing a college group out for some adventures at the schoolhouse.  Please inquire if you are interested.

T*E*A*M*W*O*R*K!  That sums up this picture taken yesterday on our ride.  Chase was riding BP (Big Paint).  We were pushing the cow calf pairs-very young calves-to a new pasture.  Toward the end, the calves were falling near the end of the group as they were getting very tired.  BP gently nudged them as we worked our way to our final destination.  Truly amazing! 

As you can see from an earlier picture BP just wants to be everyone’s buddy.  He is following Chase in the pasture.  Can you see how big a heart he has!?  Look very closely at the black spots on his right side….can you see it!

Thursday morning the sky was full of color!  At one point it looked like the sky was on fire.  Absolutely beautiful!  These pictures were taken at Head Quarters at 7 am Thursday.

Last Friday, we had a wonderful birding experience with Bill Maynard.  As you can see from his excellent pictures of the birds, seen on the Chico for the winter bird count, we had a really neat day!  I had the opportunity to go with both the Moon and Ferguson families.  It was a lot of fun learning along with the kids about the birds that come to the Chico during this time of year.  We also learned about their migration patterns and different types of nests they build.  There was a great turn out this year of volunteers!  Thank you everyone!

Male Rough-legged Hawk



The annual Chico winter bird count, this year held on 15 January, had a record number of participants, 23, and an average number of species detected.



Birds found this year included some species usually found  much farther south during winter months including: Gray Catbird and  Northern Mockingbird.  The results of the survey now hints there could be a resident pair of Western Screech-Owls on the Ranch.  East of its normal range, an eastern subspecies of White-breasted Nuthatch was found along with a Great-tailed Grackle, a species that normally leaves the area by October.  Although 99 percent of the ponds' surfaces were frozen, one small patch of open water on Rose Pond held five waterfowl species including a single Canvasback and a single Common Goldeneye.



Seven people living on the Ranch participated on their first bird count and all of them saw the Great-tailed Grackle through a spotting scope.



Thank you to all of the volunteers whose collective efforts made this count a particularly enjoyable one.  The list of volunteers (minus one) and the list of species seen follows.



Volunteers on the Annual Winter Chico Bird Count