Adventures on Tues took me north on CR 80. Again a long shot hope of adding grouse to the year list along with adding some missing raptors for my county list. Bingo on the raptors. First sighting was an imm. Bald Eagle flushing from a road side tree. As I rounding the corner I spotted an adult Bald Eagle perched in a tree on top of the hill. Two eagles sweet. Further down the road another two perched in a tree, one imm. and one adult. Then around the next corner was eagle central. Six more Bald Eagles perched on the fence posts. A fly over imm. Golden Eagle, than another imm. Golden Eagle perched on a fence post past the balds. All total nine adult balds, seven imm. balds and 2 imm. goldens. At this point I figured if any grouse were in the area they were hiding.
Still I decided to push on further down the road to find a spot to let the dog work off some energy. After all, she was excited after seeing all them eagles. Getting back in the car we whipped a u-turn to head back south. Slowly driving down the hill in a few inches of snow a juv. Northern Harrier was hunting the hillside. Continuing to back track when we hit the eagle spot, most were no where to be seen and I came across two more harriers. Heading next to Elkhead Lake for lunch, we flushed two goldeneye at the closed boat ramp on the east side. Driving south I stopped on the high point to scan the lake and a light phase Harlan's Hawk circled above us. No other water fowl where found. Finishing at Craig Station Inlet Pond with two Common Goldeneye and one Barrow's Goldeneye was a nice way to complete the day. Todd Deininger Longmont, CO -- 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
