Wonderful new and easy Ebird hotspot to do the Great Backyard Bird Count Feb 16-19. Shameless plug, but it is a mecca of changing avian activity!
On Friday, February 2, 2018 at 1:48:05 PM UTC-7, Joe Roller wrote: > > There is an nice, paved auto tour that was opened at Rocky Mt Arsenal NWR > last October. > I checked it out and found a few raptors: > 3 Bald Eagles, > 5 Red-tails, > 1 Ferrug Hawk > and a Prairie Falcon. > > I toured there for less than an hour, but was surprised to see only one > Western Meadowlark and no Horned Larks. > > Plus two Mountain Bluebirds. Although that species was found here and > there in Colorado during the winter, > these males were the first reported to eBird in the Metro area so far this > year. > > The route I followed was the newly opened Auto Tour, which covers a lot of > untrammeled land on the north side of the Arsenal. > AND you get to cross First Creek twice - once on a sturdy bridge, then > closer to its "headwaters," through a little swale. > > This is a one-way drive and for much of the route, you are advised to stay > in your vehicle, so as not to bother > the local herbivore - *Bison bison, *which roam unfenced. (I guess the > bison could reciprocate and bother you, too). > One shaggy beast was right on the shoulder of the road, which made it seem > more like Yellowstone than Genesee Park. > > Being alone out there on the prairie was inspiring, in a landscape little > altered by "us." I usually need to get up to the > Pawnee Grasslands to get that same feeling. > > Joe Roller, Denver > > PS IF you go, please compile a separate checklist for the new eBird > hotspot, "Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR--East Auto Tour." > > -- 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/1880e6ce-d8f0-490d-8e94-8dc2d5d50d20%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
