Well I'm back in Jersey. I had a great time birding Colorado over the last week. It's a very beauitiful state with some amazing habitats. All the moutain roads were in really great condition and offered some great views. It wasn't like Arizona where I was fearing for my life on every mountain road :)
Thanks to everyone that sent me advice on where to find so many birds. If anyone wants more details on any sightings feel free to drop me an email. I ended up with 25 life birds out of a potential 32 (now at 559 species for the lower 48). Total species seen for the trip is slighty >100, that includes both CO and KS, still looking over my lists and don't have an exact number yet. Total miles driven was around 2600. I was warned about the spring time weather in Colorado and the snow storm on Tuesday basically ruined my carefully planned route. Also, our rental car's tire was punctured by a sharp piece of steel while driving around Cimmaron National Grasslands, KS on Wednesday evening which also messed things up, but we were able to still do pretty well in the end. *Here are the lifers I picked up:* *Scaled Quail*: 3/20 Swallows Road, Pueblo Res *Gunnison-Sage Grouse*: 3/22 Wuanita Lek *White-tailed Ptarmigan*: 3/22 Guanella Pass (Probably one of the most rewarding species I've ever found) *Dusky Grouse*: 3/25 Reynolds Park on Raven's Roost Trail near the service road (We really had to work for this one, tried Black Canyon first, then Reynolds Park twice...) *Lesser Prairie Chicken*: 3/24 Cimmaron National Grassland East Lek (13 birds in the evening) *Ferruginous Hawk:* 3/24 Kit Carson and other spots in the SE part of the state (last < code 4 hawk I needed for the ABA) *Prairie Falcon*: Garden of the Gods and several around Arapaho NWR, Walden *California Gull*: 3/20 Pueblo Reservior and lakes around Boulder *Boreal Owl*: 3/26 Joe Wright Reservoir (2 on territory no tapes needed, time was around 9 pm) last minute lifer of the trip *Lewis's Woodpecker*: 3/23 Near Louviers, Douglas County *American Three-toed Woodpecker*: 3/22 Guanella Pass *Black-billed Magpie: everywhere...* *Clark's Nutcracker: *3/21 Great Sand Dunes Park *American Dipper* *Mountain Bluebird*: everywhere... *Sage Thrasher*: 3/21 San Luis Lakes Park, Alamosa Co. and 3/25 on Swallows Rd, Pueblo (Curve-billeds were also in this area) *Sage Sparrow*: 3/21 Smith Reservior Boat Launch, Alamosa Co. *Lark Bunting: 3/24 *6 birds at* *Cimmaron NG West Lek road *Golden-crowned Sparrow*: 3/22 Red Rocks Park Trading Post *McCown's Longspur*: 3/24 Near Elkhart, KS *Chestnut-collared Longspur*: 3/24 forgot the exact location, ~20 feeding along side the road during the snowstorm in Baca County on the way to Cimmaron NG *Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch*: 3/21 La Veta, Beverly Jensen's yard *Brown-capped Rosy-Finch*: " *Black Rosy-Finch*: " *Cassin's Finch* The birds I missed were: Greater Sage-Grouse (tried Friday evening at the Coalmont Lek to no avail), Pinyon Jay, Chukar, Williamson's Sapsucker, Red-naped Sapsucker, Mountain Plover (the roads in the SE part of the state were just way to muddy to really try for these) and Franklin's Gull (where were these guys, I checked about every lake in Denver and Boulder and didn't find one). We'll I will definately be visiting Colorado again to try and picked up the birds I missed, probably this summer when Black Swifts are around as well. Thanks and good birding, Steven J. A. Walker Princeton, NJ -- 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] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en?hl=en To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject.
