Yampavian Ranch Blog

During some winters, we are inundated with flocks of rosy-finches.  This year they showed up on New Years Day as we were watching (appropriately enough) the Rose Bowl Parade. Three different species of rosy-finches populate Northwest Colorado- Gray-crowned, Brown-capped, and Black. While all three species have made an appearance at our feeders this winter, the Gray-crowned Rosy-finches are, by far, the most numerous. 

The Sandhill Cranes stage in our area in late summer and early fall before heading south to New Mexico and Arizona for the winter.  We flood one or more of our hay fields in late August to attract them to our ranch.  Every morning at sunrise they fly out from their roosting site along the river to feed in our fields and those of the surrounding ranches.  Every evening at sunset they fly back to the river to spend the night.  The Sandhill Cranes in our area are part of the Rocky Mountain Flock and are of the subspecies known as the Greater Sandhill Crane. Today I was asked to participate in a crane count for our ranch.  On the morning fly-out, I counted 203 cranes.   This evening i decided to photograph rather than count the cranes as they flew back to the river.  So here is a sampling of the Sandhill Cranes at the magic hour on the Yampavian Ranch.

 With all of the rain this spring, our berry bushes are bursting!  Each year we add more berry bushes around the ranch hoping to attract more birds.  Different species of shrubs provide berries for the birds throughout the seasons.  Here is a sampling of our berries as we move into the month of August.

This spring produced a bumper crop of young Bullock's Orioles.  All day long I hear them chattering and begging for food from the tired adults.  I can't resist photographing them from the balcony of our bedroom which is eye level with the trees where they spent most of their day.

The first round of nesting on the ranch has been completed.  Some birds, such as the Barn Swallows and American Robins, will nest again, but most species have completed the nesting cycle for this year.  The fledglings perch awkwardly in the trees and shrubs, and all too often crash into windows, sometimes with catastrophic results.  Yesterday three young Bullock's Orioles visited our water feature and nectar feeders.                                                

As a rule, I dislike beauty contests.  In humans they tend to focus primarily on physical attributes and objectify the contestants.  In reality, the majority of humans are equivalent in beauty to what we classify in the bird world as L.B.J.'s ("Little Brown Jobs").  When it comes to birds, however, I admit to having no qualms about making judgments concerning the relative beauty of different species.  In the bird world, the male of the species is typically (but not always) flashier and prettier than the female. So in considering the bird beauties of the Yampavian Ranch, I will focus on the males, making this a kind of "Mr. Universe," rather than a "Miss America" contest. 

                                  

Every spring the orioles show up at the ranch the first week of May.  I make a point to hang out a sugar-water feeder the last day of April in anticipation of their arrival.   In Northwest Colorado, we are frequented by one species of oriole- the Bullock's Oriole, which is similar in appearance and call to the Baltimore Oriole.  The Bullock's is found mainly in the west, while the Baltimore is the oriole of the east and midwest.  Because the two species sometimes hybridize where their ranges overlap, they were at one time lumped together as one species- the Northern Oriole. Then the powers-to-be of the ornithological world decided that they were actually two separate species, after all. The Bullock's Oriole is a stunner- the male is bright orange-gold in color with white wing-bars and a black throat.

The female is a paler orange and lacks the black on the throat. 

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Once the first oriole appears at the feeder (always a male), I put out the whole oriole buffet.  In addition to the nectar feeder, I provide orange halves in a suet feeder and grape jelly in a dish.  The orioles are voracious eaters and will sit in the tree and chatter at me to replenish the buffet if it starts to run low. 

I have had as many as 4 orioles waiting their turn at the buffet line. (Actually, they don't wait politely, they butt in line whenever they see an opportunity.)  In addition to sugar-water, jelly, and oranges, the Bullock's Oriole consumes protein in the form of insects, which are plentiful everywhere on the ranch. 

 

 A short time after their arrival, the orioles begin building their incredible hanging pouch nests around the ranch.  They usually place their nests in cottonwood trees at the end of a slender branch.  They nests are well-hidden in the foliage, so that it isn't until fall (and long after the babies have fledged) that we are able to determine where they have nested.                                                       

           

From the time of their arrival, throughout the nesting season,  until they depart at the end of the summer, they continue to frequent the oriole buffet and continue to dazzle us with their brilliant color.

  

                                                       

                           

While I love all the seasons on the ranch, mud season- the period of time between the closing of the ski mountain in mid-April and the arrival of summer in late May- is my favorite.  The tourists have gone home, and many of the locals leave town for a few weeks for warmer climes.  The weather varies dramatically from day-to-day - sunny, rainy, snowy, blowy.  Flocks of birds migrate through the area, while other flocks stay and begin the breeding cycle. 

As the snow melts, the ranch transforms itself practically overnight from white and brown to a dazzling green - so green it almost hurts your eyes. Green grass, green buds, green leaves, even green frogs cover the landscape in all directions.  And shortly following the greening of the ranch, splashes of yellow begin to appear.  Golden daffodils bloom in my front and back garden, sometimes poking through the white snow that has fallen overnight.  The dull brown winter plumage of the American Goldfinch suddenly transforms to the bright

 canary yellow that seems more typical of tropical species rather than North American birds.  But my favorite yellow - a kind of yellow-orange - shows up in the form of a single Yellow-headed Blackbird that visits the ranch each spring.  I know he has arrived when I hear his raucous call, reminding me of the sound of a rusty hinge. (Click hear to hear his song).  He sports a brilliantly yellow head, neck, and chest, and flashes white wing patches when he flies.  He joins the throngs of other blackbirds that frequent my feeders during mud season, but with his flashy yellow coloration and his unique call, he grabs the spotlight.