Dear Cobirders,
It felt a little bit like Patagonia, AZ at Walden Ponds (Boulder
County) this afternoon, (only a little and only for a minute). After
receiving a call from Maggie Boswell about the Black Phoebe this
morning, I skipped my lunch and hurried out to Walden Ponds.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to Walden until 2 PM. I met up
with Dave Waltman and Eric Z. in the parking lot and we proceeded
across the boardwalk in search of the Phoebe. We were unable to
locate the Phoebe at Cottonwood Marsh and Eric Z. and I decided to
continue on to Boulder Creek via Ricky Weiser Wetlands. A quick
search of Ricky Weiser turned up very few birds, so instead of heading
back to the creek with me, Eric Z. decided to peel-off and head back
to Cottonwoods Marsh. I continued south along the road that follows
the western edge of Walden Ponds proper. About 3/4 of the way to the
Walden/Sawhill fence, I spooked a Sparrow from the road which promptly
sat up high in a tree on the private property just west of Walden
Ponds. I looked through my binoculars and realized that it was a Sage
Sparrow. I quickly set up my scope and used my phone to digi-camera-
phone the bird before calling Andrew Spencer for a sanity-check since
this was a life bird. Fortunately, the bird was super-cooperative and
I was able to watch it for 25 minutes; plenty of time to sketch the
bird and take notes as well as more pictures. The bird disappeared
into some thicker brush and I remembered that my primary task was to
look for the Black Phoebe, so I continued back to Boulder Creek. I
carefully walked the entire length of Boulder Creek along the Sawhill
property twice, finding many goodies like sub-singing Lincoln's
Sparrow's and Wood Ducks, but no Phoebes. I returned to the
Cottonwood Marsh, digging up a FOS basic plumaged Long-billed
Dowitcher in Sawhill #5, and decided to check the 75th St Boulder
Creek bridge for the Phoebe. In all, I spent three hours searching
but without success. Fortunately there is plenty of habitat along
Boulder Creek in this area, unfortunately most of it is off-limits to
the public. Hopefully the Phoebe will stick for a bit. I wasn't able
to check Boulder Creek between the location of this years Winter Wren
and the 75th St. bridge.
Otherwise, the usual suspects were present at Walden, including a
dramatic increase in the number of Cinnamon Teals since the weekend
and a reduction in the number of Gulls.
If any of the digi-camera-phone pictures look good, I'll try to post
them tomorrow.
Cheers,
Walter Szeliga
Boulder, CO
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