Hugh Kingery, the unofficial dean of Colorado birdwatchers, started looking for bluebirds last week. A longtime birder, Kingery’s life list — a list of every bird he’s identified over most of his 77 years — is “somewhere around 620” birds. He keeps a keen watch for ducks and other winged migrators that start returning to Colorado, or just stopping by, this time of year.
Q: Are bluebirds a sign of spring?
A: Bluebirds start showing up around the first of March. They’re spectacular, fun, beautiful and accessible. We have two kinds of bluebirds: Mountain bluebirds, which are all blue, and Western bluebirds, which have a rust-colored patch. We’ve seen a few bluebirds so far this year, here in Franktown.
Q: What’s another sign of spring?
A: Sometime in March, the ice on Cherry Creek reservoir starts breaking up, and that attracts the bald eagles. They wait for the ice to throw up the fish that die over the winter. I’ve seen a dozen or more bald eagles scavenging dead fish on Cherry Creek reservoir.
Q: Wow!
A: I’ve seen white pelicans there, too. Interestingly, there’s a little open water now, and we saw a dozen white pelicans recently. They’re wonderful to watch. They’re quite entertaining. I’ve seen them herd fish into a circle.
Q: What are other places that a non-birder might be surprised to find birds?
A: The South Platte bicycle path in Denver. Garbage dumps anywhere. The first bird I identified was a lazuli bunting, a bright blue bird with a peach-colored breast, along the North St. Vrain near Lyons. Dippers are found only near streams. Scrub jays are in scrub oak. Grassland birds, like mountain plovers, require shortgrass prairie, and that’s disappearing rapidly. A lot of grassland bird populations seem to be declining.
Q: Have you been to Karval’s mountain plover festival?
A: Never been out to that one. We were visiting in the area, and a woman was telling us about it. A mountain plover has an interesting story. Often, a pair mate, and the female lays an egg, which the male then guards while the female goes out to find another male. Then she makes a nest with the second one. Colorado has half the world’s breeding population of mountain plovers, even though plovers are usually a shore bird.
Q: Have you been to the Wray prairie chicken festival?
A: Greater-prairie chicken. Wray seems to have quite a good time with it. They host events on weekends where you sign up with the chamber of commerce, and take you out at the crack of dawn to a blind to watch the dancing Greater-prairie chickens.
Q: The place where those birds put on their displays is called a booming ground, right?
A: That’s right. Or lek.
Q: What’s a lek?
A: I think it’s Swedish for “booming ground.”
