During our three-day visit to the Pawnee National Grassland, Sharon and I birded every day at Crow Valley Campground. While a campground might sound like an unlikely place to find birds, it is in fact the premier place in the entire grassland.

​This oasis “is one of the state’s premier migrant traps,” says Colorado County Birding in the strange terminology that birders use. “​I​t is isolated in the middle of the prairie and is bordered on the south and west by nice groves of trees, in places quite thick, with extensive trails and underbrush.”

Crow Valley Campground from the Trail of the Mourning Dove

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The Birdwalk Trail through the large grove of old cottonwoods on the southwest side of the campground has the most birds. I got one good shot there when this warbler came out of the thicket and into the sun.​

The Black Crown Patch Distinguishes a Male Wilson's Warbler

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But Sharon and I were able to get much closer to the birds and other wildlife that visited a small pond near the end of the Trail of the Mourning Dove to the campground’s north.

A Dragonfly Hunts Over the Pond

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Fish evolved into birds, of course. But I never could see the connection until I saw this Wilson’s Warbler in flight.​

A Wilson's Warbler -- Not a Flying Fish

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A Female Western Tanager Drinks at the Pond

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She Flies Toward Me

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A Sage Thrasher Sit in a Russian Olive

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A Gray Catbird Mews Like a Cat

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A Cedar Waxwing Is One of My Favorites

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​Then, all at once, all the birds disappeared. A Cooper’s Hawk had flown to the Russian Olive tree in hopes of eating one of them.

The Hawk is Hungry

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The Hawk Remained Hungry

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​But it left without success.

​Meanwhile, I rested. I had worked hard enough for one morning.

Sharon Could Wake Me When the Birds Came Back

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