I had a delightful time birding in the Westcliffe area today--no winds, temps in the low 50's, sunny--great for this 8,000 foot elevation area. There was still some snow on the ground from a large snowstorm last week and much of the surface water was frozen over. I was surprised that I could only find one Rough-legged Hawk, a light phase bird. I did see 8 Red-tailed Hawks in the area and a possible Ferruginous.
Much of Lake DeWeese was frozen but there was one Greater Scaup, one Lesser Scaup and 4 Bufflehead in the open water and a Great Blue Heron flying from near the dam. Grape Creek that flows from the dam had at least one American Dipper. A Belted Kingfisher patrolled this shallow creek while a second kingfisher worked one of the even smaller creeks just west of Westcliffe. I saw some Horned Larks in the grassland around DeWeese. Lake Beckwith was frozen but two herds of pronghorn grazed across the road. Further down the road I saw a Northern Shrike. I got some very good pics of one Horned Lark and a few other reasonable pics that I will post tomorrow to my blog at http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com As I drove towards home near dusk, there were many mule deer around so I was driving only 50 in a 65 mph zone when I saw a mule deer out my side window running towards my car then veer away. 50 mph didn't feel slow enough then. SeEtta Moss Canon City http://BirdsAndNature.blogspot.com -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ 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
