Vol. 50 No. 2 Spring 2016 Colorado Birds The Colorado Field Ornithologists’ Quarterly Boreal Owls in Rocky Hungry Birds Key In on Defects Lesser Nighthawks in Colorado Colorado Field Ornithologists PO Box 929, Indian Hills, Colorado 80454 cfobirds.org Colorado Birds (USPS 0446-190) (ISSN 1094-0030) is published quarterly by the Col- orado Field Ornithologists, P.O. Box 929, Indian Hills, CO 80454. Subscriptions are obtained through annual membership dues. Nonprofit postage paid at Louisville, CO. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Colorado Birds, P.O. Box 929, Indian Hills, CO 80454. Officers and Directors of Colorado Field Ornithologists: Dates indicate end of cur- rent term. An asterisk indicates eligibility for re-election. Terms expire at the annual convention. Officers: President: Doug Faulkner, Arvada, 2017*, [email protected]; Vice Presi- dent: David Gillilan, Littleton, 2017*, [email protected]; Secretary: Larry Modesitt, Greenwood Village, 2017, [email protected]; Treasurer: Michael Kiessig, Indian Hills, 2017*, [email protected] Past President: Bill Kaempfer, Boulder, 2016, [email protected] Directors: Christy Carello, Golden, 2016*; Lisa Edwards, Palmer Lake, 2017; Ted Floyd, Lafayette, 2017; Mike Henwood, Grand Junction, 2018; Christian Nunes, Longmont, 2016*; Chris Owens, Denver, 2018* Colorado Bird Records Committee: Dates indicate end of current term. An asterisk indicates eligibility to serve another term. Terms expire 12/31. Chair: Mark Peterson, Colorado Springs, 2018*, [email protected] Committee Members: John Drummond, Colorado Springs, 2016; Peter Gent, Boul- der, 2017*; Tony Leukering, Largo, Florida, 2018; Dan Maynard, Denver, 2017*; Bill Schmoker, Longmont, 2016; Kathy Mihm Dunning, Denver, 2018* Past Committee Member: Bill Maynard Colorado Birds Quarterly: Editor: Scott W. Gillihan, [email protected] Staff: Christy Carello, science editor, [email protected]; Christian Nunes, photo editor, [email protected] Contributors: Peter Gent, Dave Leatherman, Tony Leukering, Bill Schmoker Annual Membership Dues (renewable quarterly): General $25; Youth (under 18) $12; Institution $30. Membership dues entitle members to a subscription to Colorado Birds, which is published quarterly. Back issues/extra copies may be ordered for $7.50. Send requests for extra copies/back issues, change of address and membership renewals to [email protected]. Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. COPYRIGHT © 2016 by Colorado Field Ornithologists. Reproduction of articles is permitted only under consent from the publisher. Works by U.S. and Canadian governments are not copyrighted. The Colorado Field Ornithologists’ Quarterly Vol. 50 No. 2 Spring 2016 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE .........................................62 Doug Faulkner ABOUT THE AUTHORS ...........................................65 CFO BOARD MEETING MINUTES ...........................66 Larry Modesitt CFO APPRECIATION AWARD ..................................69 Joe Roller and Dave Leatherman JOHN KIRK TOWNSEND .........................................70 Bob Righter THE HUNGRY BIRD ...............................................75 Dave Leatherman STATUS OF THE BOREAL OWL ...............................83 Scott Rashid NEWS FROM THE FIELD: FALL 2015 .....................88 David Dowell IN THE SCOPE ...................................................... 105 Tony Leukering COLORADO'S BIRD LIST ...................................... 114 Tony Leukering Cooper’s Hawk, Aurora, FULLY EXPOSED .................................................. 118 Arapahoe Bill Schmoker County, 6 December 2015. Photo by LESSER NIGHTHAWK IN COLORADO .................. 121 Connie Kogler Tony Leukering PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE I love anniversaries. Not because of presents or parties, but because it helps to reset my perspective. I enjoy comparing an entity’s embry- onic beginnings with its more mature version of today. I will admit that this interest does not involve very deep thought. I won’t pretend to have a command of any of the behavioral, socio-economic, or po- litical sciences. Anniversaries do, however, give me an opportunity to reflect on change over long time- frames and to recognize changes happening in the short-term. The year 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of CFO journal publi- cations, the first of which was pub- lished as The Colorado Field Orni- thologist No. 1 in winter 1967. That 20-page issue was a quick read, but nonetheless full of interesting ar- ticles. Paul Julian presented a me- ticulous review of Harlan’s Hawk (then considered a full species Bu- teo harlani), including its confused taxonomic origins—did John James Audubon really collect this (now subspecies), the plate of which he titled “Black Warrior”—along with a summary of plumage characteris- tics and the challenges of identify- ing a Harlan’s in the field. George Shier’s article “Rufous- Doug Faulkner sided Towhee Range in Colorado” summarized anecdotal evidence of that (then species’) breeding range in the state. Well known along the Front Range, it was apparently much less frequently encountered elsewhere in the state. That issue also gave a tabular summary of Colorado’s ten Christ- mas Bird Counts, noting such species as Whistling Swan, Oldsquaw, Marsh Hawk, Sparrow Hawk, Common Bushtit, and Water Pipit. In stark contrast to our current “News from the Field,” the first issue’s “Field Notes” listed just four interesting sight observations— Mourning Dove, Carolina Wren, Brown Thrasher, and Oldsquaw, all of which were noted in the Fort Collins area. The final aspect of that first issue I want to present: that year’s CFO convention was an- nounced on the inside back cover. Reservations were made by writ- 62 Colorado Birds Spring 2016 Vol. 50 No. 2 ing (that is, by hand, on paper, mailed through the post office) to the local bird club hosting the convention. The Colorado Field Ornithologists, its publications, the latest of which is published as Colorado Birds, and much of what we now “know” has changed. We no longer consider Harlan’s Hawk a spe- cies; thanks to the Colorado Breeding Bird Atlases I and II we have a much clearer picture of the (now Spotted Towhee’s) breeding dis- tribution; the number of CBCs has grown considerably and those species names are no longer used in current taxonomy, but I would guess that most of you know to which species they now refer; the ven- ues in which to report birds, both common and rare, are not limited to hard-copy publications; and convention registration no longer re- quires pen and stamp. I encourage old and new members to take a peek at what the jour- nal has published. Issues dating back to April 2000, which is when we first started printing from a PDF format, are available on the CFO website under the Birding Resources tab. The CFO Board is looking at options for getting the remaining past issues online. If you have any ideas we should consider or if you would like to participate in this endeavor, please send me an email (or pen me a note and mail it). And, yet, to prove that not all changes are permanent, take a look at who the journal editor was for the earliest issue available on the website. It was none other than our new editor, Scott Gillihan. It is a pleasant treat to see that some changes are not forever. Welcome back! The journal has had three editors between Scott’s editorships, most recently Peter Burke who is stepping down from the journal but not away from involvement in CFO. Colorado Birds continued to provide outstanding content under Peter Burke’s editorship that started with the fall 2013 issue and which included an interview introducing Peter and his thoughts on the future of CFO and the journal. Not only did he bring skill and expertise to the editor posi- tion, but his thoughtful insight and perspective on other issues during Board meetings will be missed. On behalf of CFO, our many thanks to you, Peter, for your contributions to our organization, to Colorado Birds, and to Colorado birding. May you have many more sunrises, wing glimpses, and terabytes of ridiculously memorized data to sort through in the years ahead. Colorado Birds Spring 2016 Vol. 50 No. 2 63 ABOUT THE AUTHORS Contributors News From the Field David Dowell is an outdoor enthusiast based in Longmont. When he isn’t hiking or birding, he’s working as a meteorologist at the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, trying to make thunderstorm forecasts better. The Hungry Bird Dave Leatherman is a photographer, entomologist and expert on Colorado birds. He is a regular contributor to Colorado Birds as author of The Hungry Bird. His photographs of birds carry- ing food are of such high quality that many of the invertebrates can be identified to species. He obtained his B.S. from Marietta College and his M.S. from Duke University. When not birding, Dave has been known to occasionally enjoy a night on the town listening to live jazz. In The Scope Tony Leukering is a freelance ornithologist currently based in Florida. His primary interest in birds is migration, and his work has included nearly 14 years at the Rocky Mountain Bird Ob- servatory. He is a recipient of CFO’s Ron Ryder Award and has authored virtually all of the In The Scope columns for Colorado Birds. Fully Exposed Bill Schmoker is a middle school science teacher, is extremely active in the birding community and is a frequent photo con- tributor to Birding and other ABA publications in addition to a wide variety of books, magazines and other media. He authored the Geared for Birding column in the American Birding Asso- ciation’s Winging It newsletter and contributes to birding blogs for both ABA and Leica. He is involved with the ABA Young Birders program as a Camp Colorado and Camp Avocet instruc- tor and photo module judge for the Young Birder of the Year contest. Bill is an eBird reviewer and member of the Colorado Bird Records Committee and is a past president of CFO. 64 Colorado Birds Spring 2016 Vol. 50 No. 2 Featured Authors John Kirk Townsend Robert Righter is co-author of Colorado Birds, Birds of Western Colorado and author of Bird Songs of Rocky Mountain States.