April 7, 2013 Frank Dodge and I took a quick trip down the DoubleTree Hotel Pond to see the various ducks reported there earlier and then over to Foundtain Valley School/Big Johnson to see the Great Horned Owl and the Bald Eagles.
The hotel pond was great with lots of Mallard, Northern Shoveler (the males were beautiful!), Canada Geese, one American Coot, one Pied bill Grebe and Lesser Scaup (I think that is what they were...). Also saw a Black-crowned Night Heron, one Yellow Rumped Warbler, Redwinged Blackbirds and saw a swallow swoop by and was gone before we could id it. We had the most fun watching and listening to a Great-tailed Grackle...who knew it made such varied and interesting sounds! >From there we headed over to Goldfield Road at Big Johnson Reservoir. We saw a >Turkey Vulture soaring across the open space. The reservoir is quite full with >hardly any sand bar areas. The Great Horned Owl was sitting on her nest. You could just see the white puffs of little ones in the nest. From her nest you can look southeast to the tall trees at Fountain Valley School and see the nest of the Bald Eagles. We saw one adult bird - unmistakeable white head. Even at a distance it was a quite a sight. One note - Frank had called the school to see if he could lead a small group onto their property (which is private access) to see the Bald Eagles closer and the PR/communications director said not a this time. They have been having problems with trespassers coming onto the property to see the eagles. The director did say for Frank to contact her at a later date to see if something could be arranged. I guess this would be the chance for us birders to educate people about the importance of respecting private property when looking for birds. Anyway, it was a great way to spend part of a Sunday afternoon - better than doing house work! Christine A Bucher Perched on the edge of Palmer Park, Colorado Springs -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
