BIRDING TO THE EDG

Last week, Bill Schmoker (Nikon's newest Birding ProStaffer, above) and I ventured out onto the eastern plains of Colorado looking for early shorebird migrants. Eastern Colorado is so vast that you could literally drive yourself to sleep out there trying to cover all of the land and prairie potholes that exist. Our first site was a place called Beebe Draw which essentially is an area of low-lying farmlands that are south of Greeley not too far. We checked every single flooded field, but we have had so much rain in Colorado this summer that all of the wet areas are saturated. What we were hoping for was some good mudflats around the periphery of these water holes. We did our best finding the usual suspects including Baird's Sandpiper, Least Sandpipers, Long-billed Dowitchers, and a few Stilt Sandpipers.

Bill and I stumbled across a few birds victim to cars along the way including the Wilson's Snipe that Bill is holding. The smile is for looks, thus we were not happy to find this bird on the road it its current (at the time) state.


On our way weaving through the water holes onto the Pawnee National Grasslands, Bill and I found a nice little spot that had some regular occurring marsh birds. Lots of Yellow-headed Blackbirds and such. We could hear the incessant wheeet-wheeet-doo-doo-doo-do-do-do-do in descending fashion of the Sora. Virginia Rails were calling as well, but Bill spotted a Sora creeping through the bush and about to come out in the open. We had our camera's ready and snapped what we could. I was luckily able to get a few including this guy flying across the road.


Soras are a common freshwater marsh rail throughout much of the west and north (up to northern Canada and Alaska). They migrate down to the gulf coast and southern Atlantic coast for the winter months, but are resident in some areas. Male Soras have a contrasting black face and bib offset by the thick, yet short yellow bill. The bird pictured above is presumably a female given the lack of any black on the front at all. I assume this is an adult, because if you can look at the flight shot you can see many of the flight feathers (primaries, secondaries, and tertials) are rounded off at the tip. Juveniles would have pointy feathers indicating that those feathers are extremely new and fresh.

These skulkers walk and bob their head forward as they move very diligently though the marsh reeds. Soras will swim if necessary, but most often run extremely fast to avoid danger. They often will pop out on the periphery of the marsh especially when tape is being played. Next time you are in a freshwater marsh listen for their sounds and keep a close eye on the edges to see if one is creeping around.

Good Birding!