After winding up our shopping this morning, 15 front rangers gathered to look for some of the best birds in Larimer, Weld and Boulder Counties. We gathered at Jim Hamm where a search turned up White-crowned and American Tree Sparrows. We crossed the county line for a tour of the edge of Union Reservoir (Weld) to find a first year Thayer's and one or two Bonaparte's among the gulls as well as the first year Long-tailed Duck previously reported by Peter Gent tucked back in the SW corner. We also saw a distant blue-phase Snow Goose on the far side of the reservoir.
Then we set off on what I was pretty sure would be a wild-owl chase, going all the way up to Rist Canyon to some hazily described spot (Whale Rock) to look for a sure to be long-gone Northern Pygmy Owl. After a long ride from Union including a stop with at a convenience store with suspect coffee and insufficiently provided rest facilities, we found Rist Canyon. Now we began scouring the canyon walls for some rock formation that looked like a whale to somebody. Every time we found a wide spot in the road, all five of our cars would stop and as we began to examine the hillsides, other cars transversing the canyon would slow down until they discovered that what we were looking at was only something like a Clark's Nutcracker, not a Mountain Lion or Big Horned Sheep. We continued to creep up the canyon when what to our wondering eyes should appear but a big rock by the side of the road painted to look like a blue whale (quickly followed by a sign for Whale Rock Road no less). So we had found the first part of our Rist Canyon Holy Grail-Whale Rock, but still the likelihood of a Northern Pygmy Owl being in the vicinity and detectible was not what you would describe as a whale of a chance. Again we decarred (for no good reason in the eyes of all of the Christmas-tree transporting cars coming down the canyon). Connie Steinkamp picked out a Three-toed Woodpecker in the trees, but I missed it because, alas, as we all rushed forward to try to see it out flushed a (you guessed it) Northern Pygmy Owl which flew to a nearby narrow-leaf cottonwood and scowled at us for about 10 wonderful minutes before some diesel pick-up coming up the canyon convinced the owl that it had better things to do. So we were a long way from home, still hadn't had our lunch and wanted more birds-what to do? We headed back to LaPorte, then down Taft Hill. Grandview Cemetery was certainly a siren, but Dave Leatherman hadn't reported Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers recently enough for us to give it a try and we went all the way to Flatiron Reservoir for our lunch. Next we went up and over the Carter Lake Road to get to the mysterious Dry Creek Reservoir which didn't disappoint. Totally open (due to the warm, down-sloping water of the Colorado-Big Thompson project) it was full of birds. Even though we had seen many of the species before, it did rewarded us with a scoter. We watched it a long time before it spread its wings to dive under the surface and clinched the i-d that it was in fact Nick's Surf not Cole's (earlier) White-winged. Light was at a premium, so we hustled our way all the way back to Boulder and the Legion Park overlook at Valmont. There, at the exact spot where it had held court for the past 24+ hours was a Tundra Swan, and there was enough light to pick out an adult Lesser Black-backed Gull in the growing gull flock at dusk (come along on gullapalozza with Ted Floyd and the gang at Valmont starting at 12:00 noon on January 8, 2011). All in all, a great but not unexpected late November day in the northern front range: six gull species, two unusual diving ducks, a swan, three geese species, a Three-toed Woodpecker and a Northern Pygmy Owl as part of our 60+ species. Oh, and did I mention that there was a super rare gull about 40 miles to the south? Bill Kaempfer Boulder -- 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.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
