Cobirders, Bob Santangelo and I parked at Quantock and Southshore, the south shore walk-in point, per Walbek's instructions, around 3:30 pm. We met two other birders as they were leaving the reservoir. Unfortunately, they missed the bird. They said a ranger told them "the owl had been seen on the ground a short while earlier, but was spooked by birders/photographers who got too close. The bird was last seen flying to the south." After weighing our options we decided to tour the South Shore neighborhood to see if the bird may have perched on a roof in the residential area. We drove east from the walk-in access point and turned at the first left, staying as close to the reservoir boundary as possible. We stopped and set up our scopes from a high vantage point in order to allow us to easily scan the landscape and towards the north, overlooking the reservoir and dam. We were joined by Cindy Johnson of Morrison. As daylight began to fade, Bob caught a glimpse of the owl's head rise from the south shoreline area known as "Senac Cove". The bird was on the peninsula between Senac Cove and the west shore Main Plaza, looking back towards us. We estimate we saw the bird from a distance of about 1/4 mile away...too far to get any decent pics. We turned all scopes on the bird, watched it defecate, take a short flight to the south, toward us, then turn back north and land on a post that had a bluebird box on it. We watched the bird sit and scan for prey until we lost our light. A ranger vehicle was seen on the 5k trail stopping near the bird for a few moments and then left. After a few high-fives and a couple of "woo-hoos" we headed home. Marilyn Rhodes and Bob Santangelo
-- 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.
