We picked up around 400 bales of hay out of the Rose Field today, and our new friend from France, Arnaud, never held back.  He worked as part of the crew, covered in sweat and dust and satisfaction from a job well done.

As I drove towards headquarters on Sunday, I passed a prairie rattlesnake coiled in the middle of the road.  After backing up to get a better view I noticed that two Horned Larks were as interested in the snake as I was.  After getting a few closeups of the coiled snake I stood behind my car door to observe.  The rattler started to move off the road and when it did so, a Horned Lark would land nearby as if to encourage it to come towards the bird.  The lark kept flying near the snake probably until the snake was a safe distace from the eggs or nestling Horned Larks.

 Having bean and onion tacos, the best lunch ever.

 Afte the branding, watering the horses.

Today was a special day.  The season's first branding, later than normal by almost 60 days due to the dry weather.  We haven't wanted to be distracted from giving the cattle herd all of our attention because of the elevated stress level, so we haven't branded at all, and instead have focused on putting the entire together along with the horses, into one herd that is rotating around the entire ranch in a migratory pattern.

We met at 3'30 am, as can be seen in the photo above, and departed in the dark, so as to be at the back side of the pasture with the entire day in front of us, and so as to better be able to pair the mothers with their calves.  Another reason it was special is because the entire crew was made up of everyone from both ranches, except for Jeff, who stayed behind to mind things at the MZ.  All 23 of us with the wagon hitched had, spent the better part of a day, holding the cattle up out at the Holmes mill, and dragging them out one by one with ropes.   A grand day, branding, eating bean and onion tacos and spending time together doing something that I think every one of us felt was the funnest things we could be doing anywhere.

Yesterday at Kenny's branding I took Grace and Julie and their friends and we worked most the morning with the rest of the crew helping Kenny brand his calves. This photo is of Grace (behind the calf, holding the rope) helping get a calf down.  It was her 16th birthday and I was so proud of her out there mixing it up with all the boys.  

Tomorrow we brand our first group of calves.  It'll be all day because theres lot of them.  We'll be riding out of the corrals at 4 am in order to have the whole day in front of us.  We want to be standing at the back of the pasture as first light comes.

Although migrant birds continue to trickle through, it is mostly breeding birds that are being seen on the Chico.  A lingering White-rumped Sandpiper shows that dragonflies are now rapidly hatching into adults, over 30 species recorded so far in the ponds, springs, and specialized wetland habitats here.  Dragonfly larvae live up to a few years as voracious predators in aquatic habitats, but after they crawl up onto an exposed aquatic stem, an adult merges - many dragonfly species living as adults for only a couple of weeks.  As adults their role is to reproduce as quickly as possible and lay hundreds or thousands of eggs to guarantee a new generation will follow.

A yellow-footed Snowy Egret was actively foraging along the shore at HQ Pond this morning.  In 1886, back plumes of Snowy Egrets were valued at $32 per ounce, at the time twice the price of gold. After laws were passed to protect this species and other herons, it made a remarkable comeback even extending its range beyond its historic range.

Snowy Egrets employs a greater range of foraging behaviors than do any other heron, one technique including a frantic run about which it uses to capture small fish and crustaceans.

It is a very long journey for many shorebirds who stop to refuel on the Chico.  The last ones to arrive are usually White-rumped Sandpipers (photo), coming from as far south as Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America and flying north all the way to the high arctic.  Some shorebirds beging their return trip south as early as the last week of June. Long-distant migrants have long wings, on this species the long wings fold past the end of the tail.

On June 1st each year bird migration has usually ground to a halt.  Not this year.  Today a rare Golden-winged Warbler was first heard singing by Brandon Percival.  Eventually this highly sought after species was seen and photographed.  Their primary song is bee buzz buzz buzz.  Golden-wings are an eastern species, second growth or cutover area specialists.  They are a declining species mostly becuase their closest relative, Blue-winged Warbler, gradually takes over Golden-winged habitat.  It is thought that it takes about 50 years when Blue-wings first arrrive in Golden-wings habitat for the later to disappear.  Some interesting hybrids occur in the zone of contact for these two species.

As the name implies grosbeaks have formidible beaks for cracking open seeds.  Bird bander handle them with care.  Although Black-headed Grosbeak is the common breeder in Colorado foothills, the Rose-breasted, with its rose-colored breast marking is the one most birders ew and ahh about.  Here a male from the Casita today.

Raptors all have talons, sharp claws at the end of their toes.  Every birder knows the common raptor, Red-tailed Hawk, common whereever riparian areas are found.  Adults show the bright red-orange tail easily viewable in flight. Also visible in this photograph are the "comas", dark cuved bars on the underwings, and if you look closely you can see the petagium, the dark bars in from the comas on the leading edge of the underwing.   Generalists, Red-tails will feed on any rodent of medium size. 

I wish we had an entire herd of cattle modeled after this cow. She is one of the first calf heifers that we are watching over at the MZ Ranch and she managed to slip unnoticed under the radar until about two weeks ago. This is a good thing because she was able to have her calf on her own without our help as first calf heifers often need. Unfortunately we noticed her because he calf, after a few days of normal life, became unable to use her hind legs. Her mother would graze nearby watching over her calf during the day, then at night would lay down next to her calf and keep her warm through the night. We brought the calf into the holding pen so we could keep an eye on her and help her out getting her much needed meals. Her mother is punctual and every morning is waiting at the pen so she can stand patiently and let her calf suck. We are giving the calf medicine and extra special care, all hoping that she will recover. Her mother is calmly waiting with us. This is a photo of the cow, her calf sucking (hard to see) and Charlotte one of the interns here at the MZ. As you can see from the photo, she is a very mild tempered cow who enjoys the social interaction, especially when there is some hay involved. We also gave her a blue custom necklace to help identify her among all of the other black cattle.

This is the time of year that, in the past, would be full of photos and stories about one of our favorite activities on the ranch. Branding. The Chico crew has been flat out with other drought induced chores and we have been forced to postpone our branding until later in the season. I have been living and working at our sister ranch, Zapata, and our branding is in full swing here. We had a successful third branding of the season yesterday and turned 100 or so processed calves back to their mothers at the end of the day. This is a photos of the branding crew, Kate working the rope while others are scrambling to flank the calf and get it back to the herd as quickly as possible. It is a great time of year and I look forward to the start of branding season at the Chico.

 One by one.... each little new grass plant is coming up at May Camp.

It's always fun to see one of these little guys.

Cuckoos are a widespread worldwide family but only two species breed in North America. Like other cuckoo species the breeding behavior of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo is odd. It's breeding cycle is extremely rapid, taking only 17 days from egg-laying to fledging of young with nestlings becoming fully feathered within two hours which is remarkable. Like most cuckoos, Yellow-billed is a brood parasite choosing the American Robin's nest most frequently in which to lay its eggs but has been known to select 10 other species as well.  There is evidence that Yellow-billed Cuckoos select their host based on egg color (robins' eggs are blue). In part of its range, Southern California, Yellow-billed Cuckoos have been observed with at least three or four adults tending a single nest, an example of cooperative breeding, a breeding strategy not found in many bird species.  Two of these very interesting birds were at Rose Pond today.

In migration, grebes, including the small Horned Grebe, are very social.  One at Rose Pond has been solitary for at least three weeks, the reason unknown.  It should be far north on a small lake performing its elaborate and well-studied mating ritual to its mate.  They have four pair-bonding ceremonies and these are similar to bonding ceremonies in other grebe species.  One bonding ceremony is called the "discovery ceremony" and it can include behaviors described as advertising, bouncy posture, cat display, ghostly penguin display, penguin dance with head turns, habit preening and (multiple) repeated penguing dances. One other behavior I will mention is the weed ceremony. It involves the presentation of weeds from male to female, the weeds will become the Horned Grebe's floating nest. These are very cool birds who are often overlooked.

Sometimes we forget why birds are on the Chico.  Treed habitats provide shelter for migrants, yes, but it is really about food.  Long migration flights deplete fat reserves quickly and therefore all birds must stop to rest and to refuel.  Tiny midges can hatch during any month of the year. They provide food for many migrant species.  Here a female MacGillivray's Warbler launches towards one of many midges flying in the peach leaf willows.

Until three days ago, Cape May Warbler had only been recored once on the Chico.  Named for the location where it was first collected, Cape May, NJ, it was then not seen there for over 100 years.  They winter ALMOST exclusively in the West Indes so why were there 2-3 birds on the Chico this week?  There is a small population of Cape May Warblers that winter on the eastern edge of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, and likely these are the birds that travel north through Colorado to Canadian boreal forests. They are mostly known as a spruce budworm specialist; during years of budworm outbreak this warbler can become abundant but when the budworms are controlled, this species can seemingly disappear for many years.  Often considered one of the most attractive warblers.

Yellow Warbler might be the most common bird on the Chico this week.  They breed here, up in the tall cottonwoods or sometimes in the willows.  Here, one searches for food out of its element in a cholla out on the grassland.

The newest Chico bird was found today by Nick Moore as it rocketed overhead at the banding station.  Swifts have cigar-shaped bodies and their wings are designed for very rapid flight and also for gliding.  They eat aerial insects, flying with open mouths while hunting.  One of Colorado's largest breeding colonies is in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  If you were able to see swifts' feet they would look similar to those of the hummingbirds (tiny) and somewhat surprisingly swifts and hummingbirds are very closely related. The White-throated Swift has black and white markings similar to Orca whales. 

Feathers are a necessity to a bird and only birds have them.  It takes a tremendous amount of energy to replace a feather so frequent bathing and preening are a necessity to maintain them.  Here, a still wet male Western Tanager has completed bathing and is removing any dust, mites, or other unwanted materials from feathers by rubbing its head on a branch.  Birders often wait at water features knowing that birds will soon come by to bathe and/or drink.

Sunday a male Hooded Warbler, an eastern species, was heard singing. It was easily found.  Hooded Warblers like to forage on the ground and sing from a high perch and this bird did both.  They are refered to as a "gap specialist" because of their preference to nest at the edge of a forest or in a wooded area with few trees.  In the northern part of their range they prefer mixed-hardwood forests but in the southern part of their range they prefer cypress-gum swamps.  Neither of these habitat types are found in Colorado so this is a migrant, blown off coarse or born with a bad navigation system. A new bird species for Laurence visiting the Chico from London, England.