Completing three days on the west side of the Front Range we realize this was not a good area to look for pigmy owls or flams. Still, we enjoyed the scenery and birds here. Signs of spring are few, but White-crowned Sparrow, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Cassin’s Finches, American Robin, and, of course, Ruby-crowned Kinglets provide a morning chorus in our campground. Our walks at dusk have turned up mostly moose.
Yesterday we visited Arapahoe NWR and the Walden Reservoir. The refuge remains dry with many empty pools but also some with water and a fresh flowing Illinois River. The staff was conducting a controlled burn. A Great Horned Owl stood on post at the river crossing near the office in the morning and Yellow Warblers were contesting for sections of stream bank. On the riparian walk we worked hard to find one Marsh Wren. No flycatchers. Puddle ducks, Willet, and American Avocet were active in some of the ponds along the auto tour route, and a couple of Pronghorn watched us examine the entrance station. Swainson’s Hawks were everywhere. The only sparrows singing were Savannah Sparrow. The Walden Reservoir was a great stop. It was full of ducks including several Canvasback (our first of the year), California Gulls, and a few immature Boneparte’s Gulls. No terns, however. A few Yellow-headed Blackbirds seemed to be starting the breeding season, joining the already nesting Red-winged Blackbirds. A few Western Grebes were making their crazy and wonderful runs across the lake. Today, we hiked around Monarch Lake near Lake Granby and followed a trail up Cascade Creek until the soft snow turned us back, finding little new. No sparrow activity there. Canada Goose, Ring-necked Duck, Common Merganser, Mallard, and Spotted Sandpiper appear to have settled in at the lake, but not many songbirds yet. We enjoyed watching a female Williamson’s Sapsucker drum on one of the many dead Lodgepole Pines in this area. Dippers were about the lake. Here, as elsewhere, the songsters were American Robin, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Red-winged Blackbird, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Dark-eyed Junco. Oh, and a few House Wren. These seem to be filtering in here now. We’re on to Estes Park tomorrow where we will begin some serious owling, except we fly to San Francisco over weekend to visit our son there. He will come back with us on Monday to suffer our coursing down Ponderosa Pine infested woodlands next week. Charles Strehl Biglerville PA -- 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]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/eca95322-7d75-455f-954c-0cb33d776422%40googlegroups.com?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
