I had today scheduled to do some birding around Hightower Mountain on the NE side of Grand Mesa in Mesa County today. I dragged along a coworker (an avid non-birder unless it involves grouse or ducks) to enlighten him and make the drive easier. By the time we got there, the wind was howling from the south, so I decided to drive around to the north side and work up the creek east of the power lines.
Fair birding, although the wind was still strong. I had just located a purple martin sitting at one end of a beaver pond, and eyed the large aspen stand at the other end of the pond, thinking it would be a great place to find a cavity (or six) to go with the martin, so we walked around the pond through the mud to get to the stand. Halfway across the mud, we found a very good moose track, and I stopped and took a photo. Just as I was picking up the camera to move on, my partner uttered (I am paraphrasing for the benefit of small children) "Look there!" I looked up, expecting some rare and unusual bird, and came face to face with a cow moose. We were well inside the "don't go there" limit, but she showed no signs of aggression, so yours truly kept snapping pictures, while my partner tried valiantly to get me to exit stage left. The cow came out of the trees, walked past us maybe 50 feet away, and ended up standing in the pond. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/Dennis212/Colorado/P1070517lc.jpg We did back away and leave her to it, and decided that the moose combined with the wind made it unwise to continue our endeavors. I did end up with more than 50 photos, however, and was not trampled into the mud. I need to go back and find the martin nest, tho. Moral of the story: If you are birding around the Mesa, look behind you once in a while. Other than the martin, today's birding highlight was a western grebe at Lost Lake Slough off of the Kebler Pass road in Gunnison County, elevation just a hair under 10K. First one I have seen there. Dennis Garrison Paonia, Delta County _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits. http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage_062009 --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
