Hi, all. Sorry, belated report. I'll be brief-ish. In a nutshell, the High
Plains Snow Goose Festival, Feb. 19-21, based out of Lamar, Prowers County,
featured ridiculously nice weather, good birds, and great company.
I already posted about the birds along Willow Creek, right in Lamar, on
Feb. 19: *northern cardinals, red-bellied woodpeckers, eastern/Carolina
white-breasted nuthatches, eastern bluebirds, white-throated sparrows,* and
more.
The trip to Two Buttes State Wildlife Area, Baca County, Saturday
afternoon, Feb. 20, produced the usual suspects: porcupines,* curve-billed
thrasher, golden eagle* (pair), *canyon towhee,* *mountain bluebirds*
(many), *ferruginous hawk, great horned owl* (at nest), *canyon wren, pine
siskin,* and more. A special treat was seeing a *red-bellied woodpecker*
and a *ladder-backed woodpecker* in the same tree--I think that was a first
for me. Sounds like one of the participants got on a Carolina wren, but I
didn't see the bird.
The "departure trip" on Sunday, Feb. 21, featured many good birds. I'll
break it out by location:
--Downtown Lamar, Prowers County, at daybreak, a nice flyover by *great-tailed
grackles.*
--Hasty Campground, Bent County, *greater white-fronted goose* (1, a
flyover), 2 *greater roadrunners* (north side of campground), 1 *red-bellied
woodpecker,* 1 for-sure *northern shrike* and 1
I-think-it-was-a-loggerhead-shrike, 1 *marsh wren,* 2 *eastern bluebirds,*
2 *myrtle warblers,* and 5 *pine siskins.*
--John Martin Reservoir, far east side at the dam, Bent County, many *snow
geese,* 1 *glaucous gull,* and 1 *merlin.*
--Crowley Reservoir ("Lake Meredith"), Crowley County, hard to access the
lake, but here we saw our only *northern pintails* of the day; also lots of
*snow
geese,* a *loggerhead shrike,* and an
I-don't-know-what-kind-of-shrike-it-was.
--Lake Henry, Crowley County, 700+ *common mergansers,* 15 *scaled quail,*
2 or 3 *lesser black-backed gulls,* and 2 more *loggerhead shrikes.*
--Box Springs Pond, Crowley County, 1 *merlin,* several *marsh wrens,* and
a great throng of chorusing drake *redheads.*
--And our last bird of the day, at sundown at the Arby's in Limon, Lincoln
County, a *great-tailed grackle *making a racket--with the great-tailed
grackles overflying the Burger King in Lamar at dawn, nice bookends to a
nice day.
Photos, audio, directions, insects, mammals, scenery, people, and more here:
http://tinyurl.com/HPSGF-2016
Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder County
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