Updated information on viewing at Prince Lake #2.
The Eddy property and Prince Lake #2 where the stilt sandpiper has been
observed is owned and managed by Boulder County Parks and Open Space. This
area is designated as a closed agricultural property and public access is
prohibited. Please respect the closure and observe the sandpipers from
outside of the fenced area. Rangers will be patrolling the area
periodically and will enforce the closure.
On Sunday, October 21, 2018 at 10:25:08 PM UTC-6, Adam Vesely wrote:
>
> What an incredible find, Laura, and a crazy chase! I arrived at Prince
> Lake #2 later than I wanted (blame the microbreweries), and just missed
> seeing the bird by about 10 minutes according to several happy birders. I
> drove aimlessly north without luck, trying to turn Starlings in to
> black-and-white flycatchers. Pieplow soon posted that the bird was being
> seen off of Carbonate Lane. I put the car in to afterburner, set up my
> scope, but alas the birds were mere Magpies. Apparently I missed the bird
> (again) by about 1 minute. Never fun being the sucker who just misses a
> MEGA. Bird was reported heading back towards Prince Lake #2, so I kicked
> the tires and lit the fire, SR-71 style, mach 3.1 this time back to the
> lake. Saw Aaron Shipe and Frank Farrell (thanks, guys!) up ahead; they
> looked like they had something. They soon waved to me that they had the
> bird! Despite rapidly diminishing daylight, the bird was still active,
> bouncing from branch-to-branch, and we managed a salvo of photos before
> this long-tailed beauty headed south/southwest. An epic chase I won't soon
> forget!
>
> Adam Vesely
> Thornton, CO
>
> On Sunday, October 21, 2018 at 7:48:03 PM UTC-6, William Kaempfer wrote:
>>
>> With these simple words at 2:49 p.m., Laura Steadman made lots of people
>> happy this afternoon:
>>
>>
>>
>> “While looking at the stilt sandpiper and plover (both still present),
>> happened to catch site of a fork-tailed flycatcher on the western shore.
>> Currently viewing.”
>>
>>
>>
>> It takes three things to make real birding news—finding a great bird,
>> identifying that great bird, and getting the word out. Laura had the
>> hat-trick today. Well, it takes a great bird, too, I guess. After a
>> frustrating, one-observer report of Fork-tailed Flycatcher in mid-September
>> that, I believe, was a first state record for Colorado, this was a species
>> that was on a lot of our minds. A bird to dream about, with its snappy
>> black and white body, and that long, long, long tail. Perhaps the only
>> austral migrant (breeds south migrates north and sometimes gets to North
>> America) semi-regularly seen in the US, this is a bird of interest anywhere
>> north of Mexico. I think it is even the story bird behind the cover of
>> John Vanderpoel’s soon to be published recounting of his North American Big
>> Year in 2011, *Full Chase Mode*. And chase we did.
>>
>>
>>
>> I made it to Prince #2 at about 3:15 p.m., and there were already 8 other
>> birders present. It took a little while to re-find the bird, but we slowly
>> starting thinking that the best strategy might be to walk out on the former
>> County Road 111 in order to be below the dam for best viewing
>> opportunities.. After Peter Burke saw it flying somewhere off to the north
>> of Prince #2, we all began walking that way; groups of us, handfuls of us,
>> dozens of us, scores of us, hundreds of us. Trying to count how many
>> birders were there was like trying to count the number of Western Grebes
>> currently on Union Reservoir, a little bit to the northwest. There was
>> Loch Kilpatrick, and there Mark Chavez. Oh, and Rachel Hopper, and Carl
>> Bendorf, and Bill Schmoker, and Gwen Moore, and Joey Kellner, and Glenn
>> Walbeck, and on and on. Steve Larson and Edie Israel were there, and they
>> fly out South Africa at 3:00 a.m. Monday morning! I bet even the
>> Widowbirds down there won’t be as thrilling.
>>
>>
>>
>> This is not the first time modest, little Prince Lake #2 in eastern
>> Boulder County has made birding news. Way back on October 26, 1975,
>> then-Boulder birder Bruce Webb found what I believe to be the first state
>> record of Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at Prince #2. This bird elicited the
>> famous comment from Colorado birding icon, Harold Holt, “It isn’t a
>> Sharp-tailed Sandpiper until the Colorado Bird Records Committee says it is
>> a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper”. (fide, Peter Gent). Hey—another great bird
>> during the last 10 days of October. And the year before that, what must
>> have been the first state record of Baird’s Sparrow on, wait for this,
>> October 29, 1974. Prince #2 has also had Red Phalarope, Iceland (Iceland)
>> Gull, and Eurasian Wigeon, and just over the hill at Prince #1 there is
>> still a Yellow-billed Loon somewhere at the bottom of the pond, but that’s
>> a different story.
>>
>>
>>
>> Then last
