Colorado Birds the Colorado Field Ornithologists' Quarterly
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Colorado Birds The Colorado Field Ornithologists' Quarterly Vol. 38, No. 4 October 2004 Vol. 38, No. 4 Colorado Birds October 2004 TABLE OF C ONTENTS A New Look for the CFO Website..............................................................................142 Rachel Hopper Field Trips......................................................................................................................143 Call for Nominations for Ronald A. Ryder Award....................................................144 CFO Project Fund.........................................................................................................145 CFO Board Minutes....................................................................................................146 Lisa Edwards 2004 CFO Convention Summary................................................................................148 Human Awareness Concerning the Effects of Domestic Cats on Wildlife along the Front Range, Colorado: A Survey.............................................150 Bryn W. Johnson, Robyn Bortner, Janet Kemp, Tim Sichmiller, Sarah Swanty, Therese Tepe, and David E. Gammon West Nile Virus and Colorado’s Birds.......................................................................155 Nicholas Komar New Evidence for a Breeding Population of Lucy’s Warbler in Southwestern Colorado........................................................................................161 John W. Prather, Mona Hill, and Dean Hill The 38th Report of the Colorado Bird Records Committee....................................168 Tony Leukering and Lawrence S. Semo News from the Field: The Spring 2004 Report (March-May)..........................184 Lawrence S. Semo and Brandon K. Percival Indices for Colorado Birds Volume 38 (2004)....................................................213 Front Cover: Tony Leukering took this photo of a Black-throated Blue Warbler at Crow Valley Campground, Weld County, on 17 May 2004. 141 Vol. 38, No. 4 Colorado Birds October 2004 A NEW L OOK FOR THE CFO WEBSITE Rachel Hopper [email protected] I hope by now that all of you have had a chance to browse through the vastly improved and newly re-designed CFO website (www.cfo-link.org). Thanks to Erika and Scott Hutchings at CryBaby Design ([email protected]) for their excellent work on this project. It is the Board’s hope that the new site is easier to navigate as well as more esthetically pleasing. The new Colorado Bird Records Committee website (under beta testing at the moment) will be seamlessly integrated into the CFO home site in very short order. The CFO website is full of useful information about our organization as well as birding in Colorado. Is your membership about to expire? Our most recent accomplishment with the site is a new on-line store where you can join CFO or renew your membership directly through the web (http://cfo-link.org/members/join.php). On the same page you can also make contributions to CFO’s newly created Youth Scholarship Fund, our long established Project Fund, or to COBirds (http:// cfo-link.org/birding/COBirds.php), the premiere listserve for the discussion of Colorado birds. Our on-line store makes membership, shopping, and donations easy. We accept all forms of payment, including credit cards. CFO merchandise for sale (http://cfo-link.org/merchandise/index.php) in- cludes hatpins, decals, a great variety of shirts, and Colorado state field checklists. A very recent publication, an annotated checklist, by the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory, Birds of Barr Lake and Surrounding Areas 1888-1999, by Robert Andrews, Robert Righter, Michael Carter, Tony Leukering, and Alison Banks is also available for purchase and very worthy of a place on your bookshelf. With the holidays approaching, we have added a new line of bird and butterfly note cards. These make great gifts for everyone on your list. Available right now are beautiful cards by Scott Rashid of Estes Park. There are five different designs (hawks, owls, songbirds, hummingbirds, and butterflies) each in a pack of eight cards. And, we will soon be adding cards created by Radeaux and Sherrie York. Remember, 100% of proceeds go to support our organization. Please stop by and visit the new and improved CFO website. And, as always, your comments are welcome. You can contact me at [email protected]. 142 Vol. 38, No. 4 Colorado Birds October 2004 FIELD T RIPS Understanding and Identifying Juncos Ted Floyd December 11, 2004 Join Ted Floyd, editor of Birding and junco enthusiast, for an outing and workshop. The Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) is one of the most common birds in North America. It is also one of our most variable and extraordinary of bird species. Here in the Colorado Front Range region, we are at the epicenter of junco diversity. Six highly distinctive races of the Dark-eyed Junco can be observed in a single morning and, in fact, it is possible to view all six in a single flock. Hybrids are frequent (and fascinating), and there are marked differences between the sexes. Yet it is possible to make sense of all of this remarkable diversity. This workshop has been scheduled for the week before the commencement of the 2004-05 Christmas Bird Count season, and thus is perfectly timed for those wishing to make a concerted effort at sorting out the junco races on their Colorado CBCs this year. There is one “assignment” for this workshop prior to attending, please study the photos and discussion at the following website: http://www.oceanwanderers.com/JuncoID.html. Many of the issues that we will confront in the field are nicely addressed at this website. The field trip will be limited to eighteen participants, and is suitable for birders of all levels of expertise. For reservations, please contact Ted at [email protected] or 303-444-6365. E-mail is preferred. The field trip will be from 8:00 A.M.- noon. We will meet at the Mesa Trail parking lot, in southern Boulder County. The parking area is on the north side of SR 170 (the road into Eldorado Canyon State Park), 1.65 miles west of the intersection of SR 170 and SR 93. Note that the parking lot is directly across the street from the familiar Doudy Draw parking lot. Please dress for the weather, and make sure to have your binoculars! 143 Vol. 38, No. 4 Colorado Birds October 2004 CALL FOR N OMINATIONS FOR R ONALD A. RYDER A WARD On February 25, 1995, the CFO Board of Directors passed a resolution establishing the Ronald A. Ryder Award and presenting the first of these awards to Dr. Ryder. The award was presented to Dr. Ryder for distinguished service to the Colorado Field Ornithologists organization and goals, for scholarly contribution to Colorado field ornithology, and for sharing knowledge of Colorado field ornithology with the people of the state. These criteria were established as those which would govern presentation of the award to others in the future. Recipients of the Ronald A. Ryder award are presented a plaque at the annual CFO convention and are granted a life-time membership in the organization. Members of CFO are encouraged to submit nominations for the award. Nominations may be submitted to Tom McConnell, Awards Committee Chair, by U.S. mail or e-mail [email protected], no later than February 1. Nominations should include a full description of the nominee’s contributions to the Colorado Field Ornithologists and to Colorado field ornithology. Tom McConnell Awards Committee Chair 66 Casa Del Monte Ct. Glenwood Springs, CO 81601 CFO WEBSITE We invite you to browse the Colorado Field Ornithologists’ website. If you don’t own a computer, check your local library. Visit the site regularly, because new items and changes appear often. The Internet address is: http://www.cfo-link.org 144 Vol. 38, No. 4 Colorado Birds October 2004 CFO PROJECT FUND The CFO Project Fund has money for grants for projects that will have a benefit to Colorado birds. The Project Fund Committee–Cheryl Day, Pearl Sandstrom- Smith, and Jim Chace–requests that the recipients of funding publish a short year-end summary of their funded work in Colorado Birds and/or present some of their findings at the CFO convention the next calendar year. 1. Applications should contain name, address, and telephone number of person or organization applying for grant. 2. Applications should include a description of the project - what will be done, who will direct the project, who will do the work, time- table, and rationale (explaining how the project will support the Mission of CFO). 3. Applications must be postmarked by December 1, and must be submitted directly to chairperson of Project Fund committee. 4. Projects must have an anticipated starting and completion date and should be realistic in terms of time required to complete project. 5. Applicants must submit a complete budget. Projects should be realistic in terms of financial and volunteer resources. Applications should contain all items that the project requires, the items for which the applicant is seeking funding from CFO, and should contain amount requested from CFO. 6. Travel expenses and equipment readily available from private sources (such as camera, spotting scopes, and office equipment) are usually not funded. 7. Applications should contain amount funded from other sources. 8. Following the receipt of a grant and completion of the project, the applicant must submit a final report, in writing, to the chairperson of Project Fund by February of the next calendar year. This report should include a full description of the project activities