Day 26. Southeast Colorado is certanly dry!

We found that out again today, that the drought over the past 2 1/2 years has put a strain on many things here in SE Colorado.  Today we saw ranchers tilling between the rows of grass that had not come up, some of it planted last fall. The tilled land was dry as a bone. Today there was no wind so we saw no "dust devils,  but expect that will increase when the winds return.  { All of a sudden the winds are now blowing at 35 mph , gusting to 45 mph!!!} From the agriculture Dept comes this blurb last month.  "The Plains’ combination of mostly dry weather and above- normal temperatures resulted in increased stress on 

                          Silage grass 

           Last years land ready to till.

 Possible Burrowing Owl home

   One of the roads "TO" the reservoirs 

 Heading to the fields to do some fertilizing or insect prevention

One of the roads "IN" the Reservoir area. 

 A boat launch to "nowhere" as there is no water at the bottom anymore.

 A cooperative Meadowlark. He was singing loud and clear.

 Another road in the Reservoir area.

 The town of Eads pop. 700. It was that busy the entire 30 minutes we were in town.








We went back to Thurston to see the many ducks that were there. (Below)

A Swainson's Hawk that never moved  as we took pictures and drove on.



rangeland, pastures, and winter wheat." It is not getting any better.

But for us we were persistent and drove around a number of sites today , most with Indian names like Neenoshe (clear water)  Neegronda (Big Water)  an Neesopah  (Black water)  All of them (reservoirs)  were dry as a bone. There were no waterbirds (HA) but some residents were seen.     (Resident birds, that is) .

Ruth wanted to return to the Thurston Reservoir at the end of the day,  that did have water and we did while  picking  up a few new birds along way. Eight that were there the day beforre. The Pintail and the Grebes were gone, but we added a Pied Billed Grebe, a Yellow Headed Blackbird,  A Raven and  Redhead Duck.

The town of Eads was only 10 miles up the road . It has about 700 population and was the first school in the state to move to  computer based eduction as there were only 65 High School students last year. Even though no warblers were coming yet to this "Migrant trap" we drove through, bought an ice cream bar, and picked up some literature about the 'Sand Creek Massacre'  (1864) and 'Bent's Old Fort' , which we will see tomorrow. The Sand Creek Massacre some say was a "Clash of Cultures". There is no question that a unit that had never been in battle went amock during this slaughter.  Up to 200 children, women and older Indian men were killed  while less than 20 US  soldiers died.  It was an incident that should have never happened, as the white flag of truce was held by Black Kettle the chief of the Cheyenne. (There were a few Arapaho involved).  More on 'Bent's Old Fort' tomorrow (He was married to the niece of Black kettle. She survived the massacre.)

Today we did identify 33 birds  including a Golden Eagle (three of them) , Olive Sided Flycatcher, Northern Flicker (It gave us a difficut time to identify it), American Pipit,  and the aforementioned ones.

Tomorrow is church  in Lamar at their First United Methodist Chirch traditional service at 11:00 AM.  A breakfast "out" and a half day exploring the possible birds near Las Animas and the John Martin Reservoir   west of Lamar. Today's pictures are included.