Although February seems to be part of winter for most of us, in fact it is the start of spring migration. The first migrant of spring is normally either Mountain Bluebird or Cinnamon Teal. This year the Cinnamon X Blue-winged Teal arrived back at Walden Ponds on 20 February, the fifth consecutive year that this bird has been seen there. This was a month ahead of previous sightings, and indicates that this unique bird considers itself to be a Cinnamon Teal because Blue-winged Teal do not normally arrive until much later. The first Mountain Bluebirds arrived on schedule, initially seen on 27 February. By the end of March shorebirds were arriving, and the first swallows of summer had been reported. One of the less usual sightings was a pair of Rusty Blackbirds seen in March accompanying a variety of other icterids.

February is usually a good month for gulls, possibly because when the lakes thaw, fish that have been trapped by the ice are released as food for the gulls. This February was no exception. The rarest bird of the month was an Iceland Gull which was seen at both Valmont Reservoir and in the east of the county. This was the fourth report of this species since the Boulder County wildlife inventory started in 1979. Most of the gulls in the county returned to Valmont each evening in huge flocks rewarding the patient observer who was prepared to look for unusual species. Other unusual gulls included Thayer’s Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Great Black-backed Gull and Glaucous Gull. Franklin’s Gulls usually return to the county during the last week of March and this year was no exception.

The first Brown-headed Cowbird of the year was reported on 22 February. This was almost two weeks earlier than the previous earliest arrival date of 4 April, and a month before the average arrival date of 21 April. Another early arrival was Cliff Swallow which was seen on 30 March two weeks before the previous early record of 14 April, and again nearly a month before the average arrival date of 25 April. It will be interesting to see whether these early arrival dates are a trend (a sign of global warming perhaps) or just an anomaly. We have far less information about when birds leave the county than when they arrive. It is possible that some of our wintering species that breed further north are also leaving earlier. Numbers of ducks seen in March did not seem to be as high as in past years but this could just be due to poor reporting.

Altogether 90 bird species were seen in February and 112 in March. These are very average totals for these months. TOP