Brett Gray Ranch

On June 1^st, a group of nine packed up and headed out to a Nature Conservancy owned ranch in Lincoln County on the eastern plains of Colorado.  We arrived at the Brett Gray Ranch, a riparian zone surrounded by short grass prairie, fully geared for an overnight Black Rail survey.  The headquarters of the ranch, located in a patch of big burly cottonwoods, hosted numerous singing Swainson’s Thrushes, a Say’s Phoebe nest holding four chicks, a Blue Grosbeak pair, and a fly-by Yellow-billed Cuckoo.  Once it started to get dark, we began the Black Rail survey.  For most of our stops at the different marsh patches, we only heard Wilson’s Snipes and Virginia Rails, and not a single call of the anticipated small dark rail.  By midnight, we were still out of luck in hearing the far traveling song of the Black Rail. In previous years, several Black Rails had been heard indicating probable breeding.  We crawled into our tents with hopes of hearing one at some point during the night.

At 6 am the next morning, I woke up disoriented and fumbled out of the tent to be greeted by Mark Peterson asking if a Connecticut Warbler would wake me up.  Ted Floyd and the others were itching to get moving, so we grabbed our gear and jumped in the car.  A short distance down a two-tracked ranch road, we hopped out the doors and immediately heard the song of a Connecticut Warbler!  Up to this point, I had thought all this Connecticut Warbler talk was just a ploy to get us out of bed.  We spent a long while following this rarity down a cottonwood-lined creek bed and were rewarded with stunning views of this dazzling, singing male.

Connecticut Warbler

Connecticut Warbler

Connecticut Warbler

Prairie Rattlesnake

Prairie Rattlesnake

Trip List:

Gadwall

American Wigeon

Mallard

Blue-winged Teal

Northern Shoveler

Green-winged Teal

Redhead

Ruddy Duck

Pied-billed Grebe

American White Pelican

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Black-crowned Night-Heron

White-faced Ibis

Swainson's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Ferruginous Hawk

American Kestrel

Virginia Rail

American Coot

Killdeer

Mountain Plover

Spotted Sandpiper

Wilson's Snipe

Wilson's Phalarope

Rock Pigeon

Mourning Dove

Yellow-billed Cuckoo

Great Horned Owl

Common Nighthawk

Belted Kingfisher

Red-headed Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Western Wood-Pewee

Dusky Flycatcher

Say's Phoebe

Western Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird

Blue Jay

Black-billed Magpie

Horned Lark

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Barn Swallow

White-breasted Nuthatch

House Wren

Swainson's Thrush

American Robin

Northern Mockingbird

Brown Thrasher

European Starling

Cedar Waxwing

Connecticut Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-breasted Chat

Cassin's Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Lark Bunting

Black-headed Grosbeak

Blue Grosbeak

Lazuli Bunting

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Common Grackle

Great-tailed Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

Orchard Oriole

Bullock's Oriole

Lesser Goldfinch

American Goldfinch

Thanks to Ted Floyd and The Nature Conservancy for making this trip possible and to the other participants - Todd Deininger, Seth Gallagher, David Gillian, Mark Peterson, Joe Roller, Tim Smart, and Marcel Such.