You know what they say to do when life gives you lemons. That is what Mike McCloy, Matt Daw, and I felt was going to happen to us at the start of our big day yesterday when some roads we planned to travel were either flooded or completely washed out, the forecast was calling for wind and hot temperatures, and the diversity at our only shorebird spot had almost dwindled to single digits. We (or at least Mike and Matt) decided to optimistically carry out the plan we conceived a few months ago to do a big day on the day of the eBird global big day. We also did this big day along with other groups from the Colorado State University Field Ornithologists as a bird-a-thon to raise money for our club ( https://www.facebook.com/CSUFO-Bird-a-thon-Page-1000559460080363/). Now for the actual story of what I think happened:
Due to the logistical problem of starting at a spot 5 hours from where we ended with three separate cars, we left our hotel in Pueblo at 9:30 headed for the Alamosa NWR. We had planned on scouting for about 30 minutes to find the best spot to be at midnight, but ended up having to wait around for 25 minutes since the first spot we got out of the car had all of our target birds. Once midnight finally hit, we started picking up our targets including SORA, VIRGINIA RAIL, WILSON'S SNIPE, and MARSH WREN. The full moon also made SAGE THRASHERS easily found and even a few BREWER'S SPARROWS were singing beneath the moonlight. We eventually heard an AMERICAN BITTERN and sped away to listen for owls along the highway near the Zapata Ranch. The wind was blowing pretty good around there, and although we didn't find any owls we did pick up a COMMON POORWILL across the road. >From there we drove up to Salida where we spotted the lingering COMMON and BARROW'S GOLDENEYE in our car headlights before arriving at our dawn spot near Buena Vista. We also picked up Christian Hagenlocher in Buena Vista who helped us scout and wanted to observe our first few hours of daylight and accompany us to a private lake. Although the wind was blowing pretty strong, we were able to add NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL to our growing list before it got too light. As dawn approached we decided that it would be best to try to pick up songbirds at (slightly) lower elevations first, then backtrack to the higher elevations slightly later before heading down the mountain. First, we had to wait for the ptarmigan to wake up, because what is a Colorado big day without ptarmigan? Shortly after 5 AM the WHITE-TAILED PTARMIGAN sounded off and we rushed down to a marsh where I expected to wait for sparrows to wake up. As soon as we stopped the car we heard FOX, SONG, and LINCOLN'S SPARROWS as well as GREEN-TAILED TOWHEE and DUSKY FLYCATCHER. The mad dash at dawn had begun! As the morning progressed we stopped at scouted locations picking up species such as RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET, HERMIT THRUSH, and BROWN CREEPER. By the time we picked up our highest elevation songbird (PINE GROSBEAK), the only birds that had not woken up yet were the woodpeckers. To give them a few extra minutes to get up, we decided to drive higher to listen for Dusky Grouse wing beats which are often audible early in the morning. As we were climbing, we all spotted a DUSKY GROUSE on the side of the road and proceeded to take some pictures (and selfies) before turning around and adding AMERICAN THREE-TOED and HAIRY WOODPECKERS along with RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER. CASSIN'S FINCH and TREE SWALLOW were nice pickups as we headed down the mountain to a pinyon-juniper stop that gave us our only BUSHTITS along with WOODHOUSE'S SCRUB-JAY, VESPER SPARROW, and a few other species. On our way to Ice Pond, we picked up PINYON JAY, LEWIS'S WOODPECKER and BANK SWALLOW. Getting the swallow saved a lot of time later in the day that we may have spent picking through swallow flocks. Christian was able to take us to the private boat ramp at Ice Pond where we quickly picked up our only COMMON MERGANSERS, along with many new day birds including BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON and a CLARK'S GREBE that, like the swallow, saved time picking through flocks later in the day (although we saw several more at John Martin Reservoir). We dropped Christian off at his car, which was conveniently parked next to our AMERICAN DIPPER spot which took less than a minute to pick up, and headed east. A quick stop at Sand Draw produced singing BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS and a few stops next to willows along 307 east of town gave us CLARK'S NUTCRACKER and GRAY CATBIRD. We were well over 100 species before 7:30 AM as we were headed towards some of the Park County reservoirs. With Antero Reservoir still being closed, we had to go out of our way to Spinney Mountain and Elevenmile Reservoirs after a 10 minute detour to pick up LESSER SCAUP at Buffalo Creek Reservoir. A little pond on the way held several teal species as well as a singing SAVANNAH SPARROW. We had picked up most of the expected duck species, so all we had to do at Spinney was look for shorebirds and gulls. From the first parking area we quickly added CALIFORNIA, RING-BILLED, FRANKLIN'S, and HERRING GULL along with some SANDERLINGS and FORSTER'S TERNS. I still thought there was a decent shot at Bonaparte's Gull or Marbled Godwit, so we spent a little more time than I would have liked driving further down the road, but we added our only SNOWY EGRET. As we were leaving I shouted 'Get on that gull, and photograph it. Lessback!!!'. I had remembered seeing a large camera in the back seat earlier in the day, but it was Christian's camera (who was no longer with us). By the time Mike dug his camera out from under the more important stuff in the car (food/scopes), the first cycle LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL was too far away to document. The last two bonus birds gave us a mental boost, and quick pick-ups of MOUNTAIN PLOVER, LONG-BILLED CURLEW, and WILLIAMSON'S SAPSUCKER continued to fuel our push for 200 species as we descended towards Canon City. Since we had planned on stopping at Pueblo Mountain Park before the road to Beulah got washed out, I had not scouted any WESTERN BLUEBIRDS or PYGMY NUTHATCHES on the route. Luckily we picked up both of them from the road near Guffey. Before reaching the Royal Gorge, we added JUNIPER TITMOUSE, GRAY FLYCATCHER, and VIRGINIA'S WARBLER along Highway 9. We couldn't find any Bewick's Wrens on the drive into the Royal Gorge, but a few WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS saved us a few minutes of driving to reach the actual canyon. By 10:30 we were heading into Canon City when a SAY'S PHOEBE kept us from worrying about missing that easy species we should have seen by then. We quickly added both EASTERN and BLACK PHOEBES at nest sites at Sell's Pond along with EVENING GROSBEAK, BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD, our only LESSER GOLDFINCH, and several other riparian species not found at higher elevations. Since it was about time for them to arrive, we decided to try for Bobolink's on Lincoln Ave after stopping for gas. A communication problem with navigation took us on a brief detour down a street with a young SHARP-SHINNED HAWK perched in someone's backyard. We didn't find any Bobolinks, but headed to Chandler Road where a soaring GOLDEN EAGLE greeted us with good luck which continued as we picked up CANYON and ROCK WRENS along with BLACK-THROATED SPARROW. We were still missing a couple of desert species, but they (SCALED QUAIL and CURVE-BILLED THRASHER) were easily picked up on the road to Greenwood where we added BAND-TAILED PIGEON next to the highway. On our half hour drive to Pueblo we tallied our list and, while commenting on how few misses we had, we realized that it would be possible to cross I-25 with 170 species. Unfortunately, it was looking like crossing I-25 might happen after 2 PM, which was at least a half hour behind our schedule. Once in Pueblo, we added OSPREY as we scanned the reservoir, and quickly found WHITE-WINGED DOVES in Sunset Park before arriving at City Park. I had scouted out the GREEN HERON nest, but Mike spotted one before we got to that part of the park. MISSISSIPPI KITES called overhead as we searched for Wood Ducks without success. A few days earlier I had photographed a small goose and tried to convince Mike that the photos showed that it wasn't a Canada. Since we didn't find it on the way to the hotel on Friday I don't think he believed me, but seeing it with his own two eyes made him realize that there is a CACKLING GOOSE hanging out with the CANADA GEESE at City Park. Our final two stops were for rarities, and I worried about them sucking time away from the eastern plains, but sprinting to the CAROLINA WREN spot allowed us to hear that bird as well as BEWICK'S WREN and give us time to try for Warbling Vireo with a time of eleven minutes between exiting and re-entering the car, and the YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER at Mineral Palace Park (the only spot we saw other birders the entire day) sang within seconds of us arriving. We crossed I-25 at 1:46 PM with 174 species under our belts. The eastern plains were dominated by high winds and warm temperatures, but we continued to pick up birds. LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, and COOPER'S HAWK were added to the list between failed stops at Rocky Ford SWA, Lake Holbrook, and the wet spot near Lake Holbrook. Throughout the day, we had continued to find birds that I was planning on getting at Thurston Reservoir making it very tempting to skip, and Mike solidified those plans as he slammed on the breaks yelling 'DICKCISSEL' on SR 266 a little bit east of Holbrook Reservoir. A random stop along HH had a singing CASSIN'S SPARROW (a tough big day species species we surprisingly saw and heard many times later in the day). Road 194, which had our only NORTHERN HARRIERS, was flooded out within a mile of Highway 50, but a creative detour only cost us a few minutes. The field on JJ Road that had been reliable for Cattle Egrets was not that way on our big day, but Van's Grove gave us BROAD-WINGED HAWK, BLUE GROSBEAK, and ORCHARD ORIOLE. A quick check of the nearby marsh revealed only shorebirds we already had until Matt spotted a BLACK-NECKED STILT that we had missed near Holbrook. Working on a tip from Duane Nelson, we hit a shorebird gold mine (at least this year in Southeastern Colorado) with BLACK-BELLIED, SNOWY, and PIPING PLOVERS along with a SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER and COMMON LOON within ten minutes at John Martin Reservoir. As we were about to leave, Matt noticed a gull fly off which revealed a resting MARBLED GODWIT hat had been hidden. I scoped from the top of the car and saw there were about 20 godwits, but I could not see any new species from the elevated vantage point. Luckily a wrong turn down the maze of roads on our drive in netted us our only CLAY-COLORED SPARROW of the day. We ran into the Lake Hasty Campground unaware of all the goodies (5 species we missed on our big day) around 4:45 and left twenty minutes later with only a SWAINSON'S THRUSH. Our prospects were looking pretty good to hit 200 in Lamar as we picked up BARN OWL on the drive. We thought a singing NORTHERN CARDINAL and some WOOD DUCKS that Mike spotted right after I asked why we couldn't find Wood Ducks anywhere that day put us at 200 species, but we had miscounted and were only at 199. Since we were doing well on time without having to stop at Thurston, we headed towards Temple Grove. This sounded even better when I realized that it might be possible to pick up our 200th species standing next to the CSU flag while raising money for our birding club at CSU. Matt and Mike had a different idea when they heard a GRASSHOPPER SPARROW sing on the drive over from the highway. The grove itself did give us some new birds including LEAST FLYCATCHER, WARBLING VIREO, and RED-HEADED WOODPECKER. All afternoon we knew that Neenoshe had the potential to boost our list by upwards of ten birds at dusk so we headed over there more than forty-five minutes before sunset. The Locust Grove and our stop for bobwhite only had CHIHUAHUAN RAVEN as a new day bird (after many Raven Sp. on the eastern plains). Instead of parking at the normal area for the shorebird spot, we decided to run in from the west to have better lighting for scoping. Our plan kind of worked as we had great light to pick out RED-NECKED PHALAROPES, CANVASBACK, and BLACK TERNS. In an incredible stroke of luck, right as we began scoping I shouted out CASPIAN TERNS, but while the others were getting on them the birds got up and started flying north away from the reservoir. I was really glad to see that others reported them there earlier in the day since we did not document them! We also only saw one of the remaining SNOW GEESE as it was flying around and landing in a field to the northeast of the reservoir. Although there were a lot of shorebirds, BAIRD'S SANDPIPER was the only new addition. There was still a little light left as we scanned and scanned for pintail and more peeps. On our third or fourth scan I realized that there were three possibilities for why we couldn't find pintail. Either we were too tired to identify any, they had left after being there the day before, or they were too far away to see well enough to identify. Since the third option sounded like the one with the best solution, we ran as fast as we could to the east side (and the normal parking area) hoping to spot a pintail (and maybe some more peeps) on that side of the reservoir. As we were running, we would occasionally stop to scan, and we picked up calling NORTHERN BOBWHITE this way. I also noticed some birds that looked like herons in the trees, which seemed odd for right there, and they turned out to be WILD TURKEY for our 6th game bird species of the day. Upon approaching the eastern portion of the reservoir, we were able to spot some NORTHERN PINTAIL about as far from where we originally scanned as possible. A flock of peeps feeding at this end of the reservoir had WHITE-RUMPED SANDPIPER along with Semipalmated, but we could not find either Least or Westerns in the group. After dark, we saw a lump on the Bald Eagle nest, but it was too dark to get anything identifiable enough to count. We also tried for Black Rail and Eastern Screech-Owl, but the wind kept us from thinking that either were very likely and opted to eat pizza and sleep instead of giving each bird more than fifteen minutes. Our final total for the day was 214 species, and it was one of the most fun big days I have done with so many things working in our favor despite what looked like potential setbacks. I am glad I found a group of people who also enjoy getting the blood going by sprinting between spots to find birds and pushing ourselves to the point where we are birding off pure adrenaline by the end of the day. A big thanks goes out to everyone who helped us out by letting us know about birding spots/access to areas, providing snacks for us, keeping us company during scouting, and donating money to CSU's birding club. I will post some photos of us and our final checklist on the CFO Facebook page in the coming days. Good Birding! Andy Bankert Fort Collins <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> Virus-free. www.avg.com <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. 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