Young Birder of the Year Contest

Young Birders' Conference

Camps

ABA Scholarships
   - Recipients

Connect!

A Bird's-Eye View

Join ABA

CAMP REPORTS 2004

A report on RMBO On the Wing Camp

26 June-7 July 2004

By Micah Malueg

The On The Wing camp was an "awe-full" (one of the many camp jokes) experience and a great opportunity to meet new people and learn about the 14 main habitat types in Colorado and many other things. On this camp we traveled allover Colorado visiting places like Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings, Colorado Plateau, Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Box Canyon, Zapata falls, and Chico Basin Ranch. When we visited the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde we took a tour of the largest of the many cliff dwellings, The Cliff Palace. On the tour we learned about how the native Americans might have built the cliff dwellings, what they used to build it, what they ate, how tall the people were, why they didn't live as long as people do today, why they might have left the dwellings etc. At Box Canyon we learned about the Black Swifts that nested by the waterfall, we all got to see the swifts on their nest. This was the first time that many of the campers had ever seen this amazing little black bird. We also saw a few American Dippers and a Cordillaren Flycatcher nest. At Chico Basin Ranch we learned about branding and the different kinds of brands that ranchers use, and the basic things that happen every day on a ranch. This year at the camp everyone was given a habitat to write about, and at the end of the camp we each did a presentation about the habitat that we were learning about. The habitat I studied was the Semi Desert Shrub land. The first time we visited this habitat Ron Lambeth from the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) told us about most of the plants and how some of them got their names. For example the Shadscale shrub got its name because the leaves look like the scales of the shad fish. In this habitat we saw Lark Sparrows, Mourning Doves, Rock Wrens, Northern Mockingbirds, and Sage Thrasher.

Some of the other awesome birds we saw on camp were: Boreal Owl one of the most sought after birds in the US and probably the most sought after bird in Colorado, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Flammulated Owl, Burrowing Owls, Scaled Quail, Lewis's Woodpecker, Pygmy Nuthatch, Williamson's Sapsucker, Double-crested Cormorant, White-faced Ibis, Eared Grebe, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Black-crowned Nightheron, Red Crossbill, MacGillivrays Warbler, Western Grebe, White Pelican, Say's Phoebe, Yellow Warbler, Gray Vireo, Red-tailed Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, White-throated Swifts, etc. Another awesome thing that this camp does is bird banding which no other camp that I have heard of does. The birds that we banded at this camp were 4 warbling Vireos, 1 bright male Yellow Warbler, 1 MacGillivrays Warbler, 1 Green-tailed Towhee, and 1 amazing Common Nighthawk which Glenn (one of the leaders) said was probably the only Nighthawk that RMBO had ever banded. This camp was definitely a great experience that I will never forget, and thanks to all who sponsored me to go to the On The Wing camp.

July 2004

These young birders attended the camps/events they report on with the help of ABA scholarships.