Hello, Birders. Late this afternoon, Sunday, Dec. 4th, Hannah and Andrew and I were "on the slopes," so to speak, below the dam at Waneka Lake, Boulder County. We were accompanied by several dozen young people and their parents. (It amazes me how parents of Xtreme sledders can appear simultaneously impassive and nervous.) As I'm sure you can imagine, it was raucous, to say the least, out there.
But that all changed at 4:30 p.m., when a flock of 38 Sandhill Cranes dropped from the lowering clouds, circled right over our heads, and put down along the nearby lake shore. Everybody--I mean, everybody...every single Xtreme sledder, every single parent, even the random cross-country skiiers and dog walkers--stopped to watch. It was a magical moment: All the shouting, all the laughter, all the whooshing of sleds and snowboards...all that came to a stop, as we all watched in hushed wonder at the bugling cranes. As a pointless aside, I note that those Sandhill Cranes were Boulder County year bird #250 for me. And a nice bit of icing on the cake was when an adult male American Kestrel zoomed by right in front of the "audience." How often is it that you get to tell 50+ abject non-birders that they've just seen the ABA's 2011 Bird of the Year? By the way, the cranes may still be there tomorrow morning. When Hannah and Andrew and I finally left, well after sundown, the birds were roosting, but over on the west side of the lake. Finally, here are some recent scenes of birders (but not birds) from Waneka Lake, if anybody's interested: http://tinyurl.com/cogldz8 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.
