Hello, Birders. First, the highlights. At Walden Ponds: 1 Harlan's Hawk, 1 Northern Shrike, 1 Marsh Wren, 1 Myrtle Warbler, and 2 Swamp Sparrows. At Mc Intosh Lake: 1 Horned Grebe, 24 Eared Grebes, 1 Bonaparte's Gull, 1 Say's Phoebe, 2 more Marsh Wrens, and another Swamp Sparrow. At the St. Vrain Restoration Area in Lyons: a roiling flock of Bushtits. At Heil Valley Ranch: a great cloud of nuthatches and a herd of Wild Turkeys. At Clover Basin Reservoir: an "interesting" raven. At Dodd Reservoir: 3 Ross's Geese, 4 Snow Geese, 1 Blue Goose, 1 unidentified Chen goose, and a grotesque & unnatural surfeit of "white-cheeked geese." At Valmont Reservoir: at least 41 Hooded Mergansers, at least 178 Red-breasted Nuthatches, and an adult Pacific Loon.
Second, a note to all participants. Would you like for me to "share" our eBird checklists for the day? If so, please let me know, and I'll be happy to oblige. Third, the true highlight of the day. Superb company, from the bitter cold start at Walden right down to the magical, er, celestial finish at Valmont. And now, as they say, for the rest of the story: Thirty-some birders gathered at Walden Ponds, Boulder County, yesterday morning, Sunday, Nov. 27th, for the first-ever, first-annual Great Boulder Caper. We had participants from as far away as Vermont and North Carolina, and as close as...well, Walden Ponds, believe it or not. It was downright cold: minus 10 (Celsius) at the start of the outing. But we had a steady stream of nice birds all morning, among them: right off the bat, our kick-off for the outing, a beautiful subadult Golden Eagle flying straight over the parking lot at Cottonwood Marsh; then an adult Ferruginous Hawk flying over; lots of ducks, including our only Northern Pintails and Green-winged Teal of the day; a Marsh Wren at Cottonwood Marsh and then another, singing actually, at Bass Pond; a Myrtle Warbler in the "backwoods" at the west end of Sawhill; an adult Northern Shrike, first atop a distant tree at one of the innominate Sawhill ponds, then up close and personal, providing great views to all; a beautiful adult Harlan's Hawk near the west side of Cottonwood Marsh; and, just as we were wrapping up, two Swamp Sparrows, calling, and even nicely teed up for a while, in the cattails--where else?--on the western edge of Cottonwood Marsh. Next up was Mc Intosh Lake, where we pondered an odd Herring/Thayer's thing, several yellow-billed Common Goldeneyes, and several candidate Greater Scaups that, upon close scrutiny, proved to be scaupspuhs. (Note: If I overheard right, several folks in our group *did* get a satisfactory, definitive--pun intended--Greater Scaup or two.) But not all of the birds at Mc Intosh were as problematic. A beautiful Bonaparte's Gull posed just offshore for us, and a crisply patterned Horned Grebe was a bit farther out. The light was wonderful for instruction in the fine points of aging California and Herring Gulls, for mastering (well...) molts and plumages of Lesser Scaups, and for pure enjoyment of the couple dozen Eared Grebes scattered across the lake. Notable passerines at Mc Intosh included: a briefly glimpsed, quite tardy Say's Phoebe; a heard-only Swamp Sparrow, calling from the exact same cattail marsh, just off the dam, where one had been present earlier in the month; and two Marsh Wrens, also down in the cattails with the Swamp Sparrow. Our next stop was for lunch, at the St. Vrain Restoration Area, on the east side of Lyons, right along U.S. 36. We birded here, too. The highlight was a revved-up flock of hyperactive Bushtits, chirping and chippering as they passed us by. In general, the theme here was dickey birds with high-pitched vocalizations: along with the Bushtits, at least three vocal Brown Creepers, a fly-over Cedar Waxwing, and a crabapple full of American Robins, one of whom was giving that disarmingly loud, high-pitched alarm call. A trailside flock of juncos included Pink-sided, Oregon, Gray-headed, Slate-colored, and Cassiar. (Note: Cassiar, without an apostrophe; not Cassiar's. It's named for a place, not a person. Learn all about the Cassiar Junco here: http://tinyurl.com/7y8mfj8.) To my amazement, we found no American Dipper along the St. Vrain. But we did see a little black plastic flowerpot that repeatedly did a great imitation of a dipper... Capering south along U.S. 36, we wound up at Heil Valley Ranch, that Sunday-afternoon getaway for every mountain biker in Boulder County, it would seem. Mountain bikers and...nuthatches! A bit of pishing and whistling brought in a great throng of berserk Pygmy Nuthatches, peck-your-eyes-out Red-breasted Nuthatches, and comparatively sedate White-breasted Nuthatches. Mixed in with the nuthatches (and Mountain Chickadees, and a Brown Creeper, and a Townsend's Solitaire...) were at least 3 White-winged Juncos, thereby giving us a clean sweep on the day for Colorado's subspecies, subspecies-groups, and indeterminate populations (cf. Cassiar Junco) of the taxon currently classified as Junco hyemalis, the Dark-eyed Junco. Then we abruptly shifted gears, from relatively small birds to very large birds, namely, a flock of 30+ Wild Turkeys. Despite our joking, and despite the bad rap they've gotten, those turkeys were glorious: bronze and buff, iridescent amber and vinaceous, just stunning in the afternoon sun; sauntering about like nobody's business in a sun-dappled clearing in a grove of ponderosa pines. Truly, the Wild Turkey is one of the great birds of the outrageously beautiful foothills of the Colorado Rockies. Now it was over to Clover Basin Reservoir, which had far fewer ducks than a week ago. And no swans. Oh, well. Nevertheless, we got nice looks at what ducks were out there: Canvasback, Ruddy Duck, and others. We saw an older subadult Bald Eagle out there, too--one of a number of Bald Eagles, of various age-classes, that we saw during the course of the day. And we saw one of those problematic late-fall-and-into-winter Front Range ravens. We got decent looks as it flew by, and we agreed that it didn't look right for Common Raven; but it didn't call, and we don't know. Oh, and we noticed several itty-bitty Cackling Geese, which we thought was kinda cool. And that set the stage for our next stop... Dodd Reservoir. Ew! Gross! If ever there was a proving ground for avian cholera, it is this place. We saw at least 5,000 white-cheeked geese here, including 1,500+ Cackling Geese. Of the presumed Canada Geese, only a few looked especially large. Thus, lots of Lessers? We also saw a few that had that Taverner's look about them. Who knows! Next time, we'll bring our DNA kit with us... There were "white" (Chen) geese here, too--as previously reported during the past few days by several other birders. Our tally was 3 Ross's Geese (2 adults, 1 juvenile/formative), 4 Snow Geese (adult and juvenile/formative), 1 Blue Goose (i.e., a dark-morph Snow Goose), and 1 "white" goose in the genus Chen that we didn't venture to identify to "species." Finally, Valmont Reservoir. Mergansers were plentiful, as is usually the case here in late fall and early winter. We counted 178 Red-breasted Mergansers, and you can be sure we missed a few. We also counted 41 Hooded Mergansers, including a tight raft of 20. As to Common Mergansers, well, lots. A nice find was an adult Pacific Loon, gratifyingly close to shore along Valmont Reservoir proper. Another nice find--reported by several folks who elected to caper from the Legion Park overlook--was a bull elk. Go figure. On the way out of Valmont, we paused to study our solar system: Saturn with its main ring-complex nicely visible through our scopes, and Jupiter with its brilliant pink cloud bands. It was a serene closing, as lovely as can be, to our wonderful caper. We'll do it again next year! Ted Floyd [email protected] Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado -- 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.
