Ever since a memorable road trip that I took with a good buddy back in 2001, I have wanted to get back out to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. At that time I had not yet discovered the wonders of birding, and I always think to myself, "While you were busy hiking and fishing in Rocky Mountain National Park, how many Clark's Nutcrackers, Williamson's Sapsuckers, and American Dippers did you walk right past and not even realize it?" Of course, as all birders know - you can't fault yourself for all the stuff you missed in your pre-birding days... but you can make up for it! I had been birding out West a few times by now, but always to the Southwest region of the country. Though it was not the right time of year to do an infamous "Chicken Run" to see all the grouse and prairie chickens of Colorado and its neighboring states, there were many breeding birds of the interior West that would still be lifers for me. I set my sights on early June, when most of the migrants would be on territory and the resident birds would be busy getting ready to raise families as well. This is the story of my first birding adventure to the great state of Colorado. As always, you can skip the story and jump straight to the bird list and photos by clicking HERE.
DAY 1
Monday, June 09, 2008
My flight was delayed in Atlanta so I got a late start, arriving in Denver around 11:00am. However, any disappointment was soon replaced by rejoicing when I decided to randomly walk up to the Budget rental car counter to see if they could beat the $420 8-day reservation that I had with a competitor. I walked away with a brand new white Trailblazer for $230! I made a local supply stop for snacks, water, and a Colorado DeLorme Road Atlas and started trekking north towards Pawnee National Grassland.
The Rocky Mountains were always with me to the west, all 50 miles north on I-25 towards Fort Collins. They stood proud, tall, formidable… still capped with glistening sheets of snow from the previous winter. Down here on the vast plains and grasslands in their shadow, I thought of Lewis and Clark, how they must have felt when they first saw those purple giants looming ahead of them! Soon I picked up Colorado Hwy 14 and headed east to Briggsdale, a tiny hamlet that serves as the “gateway” to the Pawnee National Grasslands. I paid $10 for a campsite at Crow Valley Park and Campground, stuck a little sign on the post so no one else would take it, and spent the remainder of the afternoon looking for birds around the campground and out in the grasslands.
In the campground itself I found a very interesting mix of East and West. There were BLUE JAYS, BROWN THRASHERS (Georgia's State Bird!), AMERICAN ROBINS, YELLOW WARBLERS, ORCHARD ORIOLES, and one EASTERN KINGBIRD mingling with a WESTERN WOOD PEWEE, BULLOCK’S ORIOLES, bubbly WESTERN KINGBIRDS, and “Red-shafted” NORTHERN FLICKERS busy at their nest cavity. The Yellow Warblers did not sing a song I am familiar with, and in fact if I had closed my eyes and pictured myself back in the Appalachians I would swear I was listening to a Chestnut-sided Warbler. I had read about it in the guide, but still had to do a double-take upon hearing and then seeing COMMON NIGHTHAWKS out and about in broad daylight, calling as they tumbled overhead. Other birds noted in the campground included AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, HOUSE WREN, and NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD.
Then I began the suggested tour in the ABA Guide. Many more WESTERN KINGBIRDS lined the fences and performed aerial acrobatics throughout the area, and I saw a RED-TAILED HAWK being mobbed. Once in the grasslands, I took my time cruising along. As expected, there were HORNED LARKS everywhere. But I couldn’t get over the scenery to watch them! This land is simply… Big. Everything about it – the sky, the rolling hills, the endless expanse of grasses and tiny cactus – it is massive, wild, and beautiful. I took some photos and started concentrating on the birds. I saw my first Pronghorn before my first McCOWN’S LONGSPUR, but not far apart. I got to see many of these birds by the end of the afternoon – several of them were in full display mode which was very fun to watch. They launch themselves into the air in a tall, fast-flapping flight, and then spread their wings and tail to parachute down to the ground with no effort at all, singing their jumbled little tune all the way down. I found a BURROWING OWL who had taken over one of the holes in a prairie dog town and actually attempted a photo from 100 yards and through much heat distortion; there were also a couple LARK SPARROWS and a cool horny toad around. After much searching in vain for plovers, I finally spotted the right silhouette at the edge of a wet area! Upon further investigation and upon the bird flushing noisily it turned out to be a good ‘ole KILLDEER; the “fancy” plover would have to wait for tomorrow. I had the consolation of many striking male and female LARK BUNTINGS (Colorado's State Bird!); the males perform a ritual not unlike the one the longspurs were putting on. I saw more mammals out there, too, including those crazy long-eared hares Rachel and I have seen out West before and something that looked like a chipmunk but probably wasn’t. At a cattle watering hole, I was surprised to find an AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN and an AMERICAN AVOCET. WESTERN MEADOWLARKS serenaded me along the well-worn and dry dirt roads (which would be pretty bad in rainy conditions). Also along the route were two or three BREWER’S SPARROWS and at least one CASSIN’S SPARROW who was heard clearly but would not reveal his hiding place out in the scrubby landscape. On the way back towards the campground, I saw a fast-moving male Pronghorn and two LOGGERHEAD SHRIKES. Just down the road, a falcon swooped down from atop a power pole and flew strongly to the next pole down. I had a good chance to study this bird in my scope and was ecstatic to find that it was my first PRAIRIE FALCON. A very nice way to end the day, made even better by a good networking conversation I had with a local birder at the campground who was conducting some breeding bird atlas work in the area.
DAY 2
June 10, 2008
I woke up chilled to the bone in the back of the Trailblazer around 2:30am and had to switch to the front seat, turning the heater on full-blast 15 minutes at a time. Still, I’d rather start a day wearing fleece and gloves than have it already be in the mid-70’s by 8:00am like back home in the Deep South! I couldn’t sleep anymore after about 4:45am, so I rolled down the window and started listening to the birds waking up. Though I was sure I imagined it, I thought I heard a Screech Owl tremolo in the distance. Just for fun, I played Western Screech on the iPod at about half volume. Almost immediately, I heard the branches right next to the car rustle with an incoming bird! I shut down the iPod and as I put it down, a bone-chilling trill came from the same spot, not even 20 feet away. I fumbled for the camera and tried a trick Rachel showed me. I turned on the flash, put it on manual focus, and tried to make the dark edges of the leaves against the gray sky become sharp, and fired blindly. Leaves. Second try, leaves. Third try, there he was in the corner of the shot all blurry! On the fourth try, I played with the focus and as luck would have it I got a half-decent image. A little research proved that this was actually a gray phase EASTERN SCREECH OWL, not a Western (voice and range differences), but either way he wasn’t going to stand for any intruders. I decided the camera flashes and the audio lure was enough annoying him so I rolled up the window for another warm-up session.
At first light, I headed straight to an area the local birder had pointed me to, where a gas line cut had exposed a lot of open dirt (just what the plovers like) and where her colleague had seen a group yesterday. No plovers. I cruised around for a while, encountering more vocal, displaying LARK BUNTINGS and McCOWN’S LONGSPURS, a couple SWAINSON'S HAWKS, and a beautiful "Krider's" RED-TAILED HAWK. Finally, I ended up well east of Briggsdale so I started heading west on Hwy 14 to start back up County Rd 77 to a spot where she had seen two Ferruginous Hawks yesterday. I noticed a very large, dry, plowed field and thought, “OK, if I’m paying attention, that habitat is right.” I pulled over and scanned. HORNED LARKS #2,745 and #2,746 (maybe a little too high of an estimate) appeared immediately, producing a sigh. When I put up the binos on the other side of the road, almost instantly in the field of view appeared a single MOUNTAIN PLOVER! I grabbed the scope and enjoyed watching him scoot around for a while, and took some documentary photos. I received some emails from local birders that this year perhaps they are a bit more spread out and not as easy to come by. I got some nice tips of spots to look specifically, but all this had happened while I was not connected to the internet. I truly got lucky on this one, as I did not encounter any other plovers the rest of the day. Quite satisfied with life in general, I headed to the hawk spot.
Over the next hour or so of cruising around the amazing, bright, wide-open grasslands I found two pairs of SWAINSON’S HAWKS. One was a proud papa on a power pole with mama sitting on their nest at the top of the next pole down the row. The other was a soaring bird in the vicinity of another nest in a small tree, where another head also poked up over the rim to see what all those “clicks” were (Ah, only the classic loud Canon 30D shutter release). I found many of the previously mentioned grassland birds, and in a small farm pond I found an AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN, a PIED-BILLED GREBE, AMERICAN COOTS, a pair of BLUE-WINGED TEAL, a single GADWALL sporting a weird summer plumage, a GREAT BLUE HERON, a SNOWY EGRET, and peaking out from the reeds was a pretty male CINNAMON TEAL. Just down the road I stopped next to a WESTERN MEADOWLARK perched on a post proudly displaying a mouth full of tasty morsels he had caught.
Finally deciding that if I were to see any other new raptors they would have to find me, I headed to the west end of the park to search for the “other” longspur species. I parked just inside the cattle guard east of the intersection of Hwy 85 and County Rd 114. A sign said I should call before entering, but there was no area code. I played with it and eventually talked to a nice biologist who granted me permission to open the gate and walk around in this higher grass area. It was getting hot, or at least I was overdosing on sun, and the wind had gone from gusts of 20mph to just plain blowing that hard and even harder all the time. Less than impressed with several more HORNED LARKS, I kept walking along, amazed at my first close-up encounter with several cactus species, grasses, wildflowers, and other plants that lit up the ground at my feet with color. After 15 minutes or so, a very small bird propelled itself into the air in front of me, making small chips every couple seconds. Immediately I recognized the all-black underside as described in the ABA guide, and I had found my first CHESTNUT-COLLARED LONGSPUR! This bird and I played hide-and-seek for at least 30 minutes. He would land, providing only partial views and pitiful photos. As soon as I approached, he would take flight, calling here and there, and sometimes cruising by my head literally 15 feet or less away! Of course, trying to get images of him flying were about as easy as photographing a dragonfly in flight (though to be sure, Rachel has accomplished this several times). I enjoyed gingerly making my way through this area for an hour or so, finding three or more of these active little birds before heading back to the vehicle to find an immature McCOWN'S LONGSPUR less than 20 yards away from me on the road.
After a nice day in the flat lands, I headed up into the Rockies and the tourist town of Estes Park to find a well-deserved hotel room for the night before exploring Rocky Mountain National Park for a couple days.
DAY 3
June 11, 2008
I turned on the computer quickly to check the weather: 35 degrees, maybe I shouldn’t have looked. Chances of rain or snow off-and-on. However, I failed to notice one particular aspect of the weather that was probably mentioned in the forecast… and is measured in miles per hour, not degrees.
I was out of the hotel by 6:00am, and headed to Cow Creek Trailhead where a pair of Northern Pygmy-Owls had been lurking, but had not been seen for couple weeks. When I got out of the vehicle I was greeted twice – once by a happy little WILSON’S WARBLER singing in a willow thicket, and the second time by the wind. That’s right, no matter which birder you talk to they will all tell you there is nothing worse than wind to make birding difficult. And this wasn’t just any wind, either. It was sustained at about 15-20mph and gusting at least up to 30-40mph, and it was cold. Great. But hey, the views were incredible as I wandered among a small cluster of cabins and through a mountain meadow, following the creek. One bird that was ubiquitous here and throughout the trip was the BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD. I could always tell when one was around because they have a special arrangement of primary feathers that allows them to make a neat buzzing, insect-like sound by passing air over these feathers in just the right way. It seemed I was never without one of these little guys nearby.
And did I mention the wind? I had hardly even seen a single bird after half an hour, let alone hear anything at all. There were Mountain Lion warning signs that said to make lots of noise on the trail, so I took out my frustrations by randomly yelling things like, “Knock it off, will ya?!!” or “Alright, already!! C’mon!!” The wind simply responded with even more powerful gusts, and some little ground squirrel came out to laugh at me. Finally I managed to detect some PINE SISKINS overhead, perched in a pine; these were also at just about every stop in the park and other higher elevations on the trip. A HAIRY WOODPECKER announced his presence as well. And then, as if to prove that patience is indeed a virtue, a female WILLIAMSON’S SAPSUCKER wafted out of the woods, fought the wind, and hitched up a small tree only 20 yards away. Yeah! Though the owls were nowhere to be seen (or heard) today, I did scrape up some other cool birds like my first HAMMOND’S FLYCATCHERS and a WARBLING VIREO, while both TREE SWALLOWS and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS somehow managed to stay aloft overhead. On my way back down to the vehicle, the snow started. That’s right! No, it didn’t stick or come down in huge wet flakes, but a genuine blowing snow flurry engulfed the valley as I descended, which was actually great to experience even if it was a little cold and sent me scrambling to cover the camera. There were two or three more quick snow showers like this during the day; always fun for a Georgia boy to see snow in June!
Next stop was Moraine Park in the Rocky Mountains National Park. When I paid the whopping $20 per vehicle fee, I got a map and was told that Trail Ridge Road (a major destination for the day) was closed due to 100 mph wind gusts, blowing snow, and black ice; guess I wouldn’t want to be up there even if it was open! I should have noticed how wide-open and exposed the habitat at Moraine Park was before I got out and started walking, but I didn’t. I saw my first of many BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES, a few AMERICAN CROWS, and COMMON RAVENS cavorting around, along with AMERICAN ROBINS and a flock of AMERICAN PIPITS. But after a few minutes I was grumbling my way back to the car to warm up. I did find some respite by hiking for a bit on the Fern Lake trail, which was sheltered from the worst of the wind. Here I saw “Audubon’s” YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, singing RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS and a calling GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET. Along the road I found “Gray-headed” DARK-EYED JUNCOS, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, and both MOUNTAIN and WESTERN BLUEBIRDS. I decided to drive up Trail Ridge Road until reaching the point where it was gated off. I was rewarded with awesome views of the mountains and the valleys below, and some more wind. I started heading back down to try my luck at Beaver Meadows but pulled over quickly in a turn-out when I heard the classic “jip, jip, jip” of a RED CROSSBILL. A moment of searching found a female atop a conifer, and when she flew she was joined by a male. As fate would have it, my first CLARK’S NUTCRACKER came swooping down across the valley from a much higher elevation, but never stopped, and yet I was glad because I had been counting on those further up on the closed road. Sometimes good fortune smiles on a wind-weary birder… you stop for one bird, and an even better one just happens by while you’re there. At Upper Beaver Meadows, I found a family of HAMMOND’S FLYCATCHERS, a pair of MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS, MOUNTAIN CHICKADEES, CASSIN’S FINCHES, and GREEN-TAILED TOWHEES among other birds. There were Elk there, and in many other places in the park. And I also think there must be a dozen different species of cute little squirrels that I haven’t figured out yet but took pictures of, anyway.
One bird I was determined to see since everyone (the ABA guide, birder emails) kept saying it was a “gimme” was an American Dipper. So I went back down to Moraine Park and started walking along the stream. And walking. And walking. I got to the point where I had walked every foot of this stream from one end of the meadow to the other and walked the roads to get back to my vehicle faster. Though I never saw a single one of these “fairly common” birds, I found nesting RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS, LINCOLN’S SPARROWS, SAVANNAH SPARROWS, and single BREWER’S SPARROW and VESPER SPARROW. A SPOTTED SANDPIPER flushed from a muddy bank on the stream. If I had my fishing gear I bet there were some gorgeous trout in that stream to be had, but good luck casting a fly-rod in that wind!
I drove into Estes Park for a late-afternoon meal and picked up a voicemail from a local birder I had touched base with via email. He said the weather had forced down a flock of 500 or more BROWN-CAPPED ROSY-FINCHES off the tundra and to his friend’s feeders! He met me at a McDonald’s and soon I was sitting on a back porch, getting in-your-face looks at these life birds! This was another high-elevation species I thought I had lost with the road closure, and a great end to the day. As I fell asleep in the vehicle, I think my ears were ringing from the wind… while the vehicle itself was being rocked by gusts which had still not let up! Needless to say, some far-fetched owling plans I had for the night were blown away, literally.
DAY 4
June 12, 2008
Not really having an itinerary can be nice sometimes. I decided the night before to just bum around in the park this morning, getting a little more out of my fee and trying to clean up a couple misses from yesterday before migrating westward into plateau country. As I approached the mountains, the warm sun on the peaks was a sight no words or photos can properly describe.
I started at a pretty aspen grove pointed out to me by the same birder who helped with the finches. Another RED CROSSBILL was the first bird of the day in the surrounding pines with some PINE SISKINS, followed by a HAIRY WOODPECKER, a HOUSE WREN (quite common in the park), and two WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCHES. A herd of Elk quietly munched on breakfast across the road. Then I headed over to Endovalley, a good spot for woodpeckers. As soon as I hopped out a RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER swooped through the parking lot, stopping twice just long enough to make the ID but not long enough to enjoy watching him. A willow thicket nearby produced several singing WILSON’S WARBLERS, while a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH called from a huge conifer over the parking lot. Other good birds here included a brief stop by a CEDAR WAXWING, both MOUNTAIN and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES, and singing BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK and LINCOLN'S SPARROW. I drove over the alluvial fan created by a dam failure and subsequent flood in 1982, and parked on the other side. Here was another male RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER that I got to see much better, along with MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS, STELLER’S JAYS, and a probable Dusky Flycatcher down low in some scrubby bushes but it did not call. I heard a lot of noise coming down a tree and turned my head just in time to see a “normal” squirrel chasing what I called “Devil Squirrel” down from his tree. This wild-looking, all-dark animal was huge for a squirrel, plus it had these cool tufts on his ears that looked like horns. No sooner had he started up another tree, than he was viciously attacked by a MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD. Why didn’t anyone like this poor little dude? As I drove towards the exit to the park, I passed a large riparian area and pulled over. Almost immediately I heard an Empid calling. Just one playback on the iPod and a DUSKY FLYCATCHER popped right up to assert himself. Very happy to have found the sapsucker and flycatcher that I missed yesterday, I began my transfer to the Western Slope.
I finally found a family of three AMERICAN DIPPERS just west of Loveland on the Big Thompson River; I had to park quickly but carefully on the road shoulder when I saw one as I passed by at 45mph, but it proved that birding by moving car is possible, if not reckless. The adult flushed when I got out of the car, but two young of the year stayed on the rocks, bobbing up and down and just being cute. Then I headed to a GOLDEN EAGLE nest just north of Fort Collins thanks to another birder tipping me off. As I pulled off the road, one of these gorgeous birds came flying in powerfully from behind me, landed in a cottonwood tree, decided he needed to check me out, and proceeded to soar directly overhead! In this same area, in some farm ponds, I found a couple more AMERICAN AVOCET and a male NORTHERN SHOVELER. West of Denver, I stopped at the tiny historic town of Georgetown to access Guella Pass. On my way up, I passed a group of Bighorn Sheep right next to the road! At the pass was my first experience with the alpine tundra, and it was awesome. Both in the good way, and in the sense that I was filled with awe at how powerful the wind can be and how brutally cold it was… super high elevation, no trees to break the wind, just dry, scrubby plants, snow, dirt, and rocks. The reason I had come, of course, was to look for White-tailed Ptarmigan. One had been seen here just three days previous, and this was the last of the birds I had hoped for in RMNP way up high where the road was closed. I actually made use of every layer of performance clothing I had packed in order to be able to spend just an hour and a half out there walking the trails and tromping around through well-intact snow banks. But no Ptarmigans. Was I surprised? Heck no! If I was a Ptarmigan, I would be shoved up against the side of the biggest rock I could find, huddled up with all my buddies, and laughing myself silly at the big, stupid mammal wrapped up in fleece and nylon out there freezing his tail off! As I finally walked away, I turned back to check the rocks at least three or four times to see if one had popped up. I knew this was it, if one did not magically appear, it was a miss. Oh, well… too cold to worry about that! When I gratefully cranked up the heater back at the vehicle, I realized that the only part of my body exposed to the elements – my eyes and cheekbones – were red and tingling. Wow. Feeling pretty worn out and not having slept in a bed the night before, I limped into a rest area somewhere near Vail and passed out immediately in the front seat.
DAY 5
June 13, 2008
Ah, nothing like your third McDonald’s breakfast and coffee in as many days to start your morning off right! Seriously, after this one I said, “That’s enough. Let’s get some actual food later today.” Then it was off to discover the birds of the Colorado National Monument just southwest of the city of Grand Junction.
At my first stop at Devil’s Kitchen, it was not long before I found a pair of everyone’s favorite – the boldly-patterned BLACK-THROATED SPARROW. I heard the bubbly calls of ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHERS, and BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHERS wheezed all around. Though there was a slight chill in the air, this was quite a different landscape and climate to behold compared to the past two days up in the Rockies. This is plateau and canyon country, with beautiful red, sculpted stone and towering rock columns, sagebrush, pinyon pines, and junipers. Really cool stuff. A ROCK WREN woke up for the morning with its ricochetting calls among the rocks, and also singing or calling were HOUSE FINCHES, a LARK SPARROW, a SAY’S PHOEBE, and a BEWICK’S WREN. Just then a GAMBEL’S QUAIL called from very close. As soon as I rounded his corner of the brush, he burst into flight… but I heard that little bugger start calling again in less than a minute. A TURKEY VULTURE and croaking COMMON RAVENS were seen overhead. I stopped at a few other overlooks on the seemingly miraculous Rim Rock Road; building this route was an amazing feat of engineering (you may not enjoy driving it if you have serious problems with heights or vertigo). Then I made the turn to park and walk at Black Ridge Hunter Access. Here I found both PLUMBEOUS and WARBLING VIREOS singing within a few trees of one another. BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS were also vocalizing as they foraged. Another Empid call, and my first GRAY FLYCATCHER was spotted, calling from the brush and posing for a few moments on a wire overhead!
I proceeded on to the visitor’s center for more views and some literature. Then I parked and walked the trail directly opposite the building, as was suggested by several birders. Here I encountered my first GRAY VIREO, some noisy WESTERN SCRUB JAYS, a family of BLACK-THROATED GRAY WARBLERS, and an ASH-THROATED FLYCATCHER. When the trail looped around a deep canyon, I sat down to enjoy the sight and sound of about ten WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS and a half-dozen VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOWS careening through the air. At the campground I found the largest “gang” of BUSHTITS I have ever seen; at one point I quickly took a count of no less than fifteen! Not far away, I was also happy to find a family of JUNIPER TITMOUSE, a bird we had missed in AZ last year. With the heat of the day coming on, I parked at a wonderful overlook at Window Rock Trail and took a nap with a cool breeze blowing through the vehicle. Though I tried both before and after my siesta, including a couple playback attempts, I never did run into any Pinyon Jays but I still had some spots in mind. I took my time winding down off the plateau, and in the early evening I decided to take a break and finally get a good night’s sleep in a hotel.
DAY 6
June 14, 2008
I slept late this morning, had a good breakfast, and left the hotel around 7:30am. I headed into the desert today in search of Chukars, and later for Pinyon Jays. I got to the little community of Mack just as my gas light came on, and I filled up at an interesting little gas station that actually had the old-fashioned meters instead of digital. The gas prices, however, were quite modern.
I began my search by following the “Desert Loop” route described in the ABA guide. Pronghorns and Prairie Dogs were mammals of interest, and I watched a NORTHERN HARRIER being harassed by blackbirds along the road. Soon I found some neat desert scrub birds like LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE, NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, LARK SPARROW, WESTERN KINGBIRD, SAY’S PHOEBE, WESTERN MEADOWLARK, ROCK WREN, yet more HORNED LARKS, and BREWER’S SPARROW. In a valley with larger shrubs I heard a familiar song and soon found at least one (and likely two) BLUE GROSBEAKS. A RED-TAILED HAWK was perched high on a ridge and COMMON RAVENS called and cruised around overhead. I kept an eye on the hillsides for Chukar to no avail. The book said if the species is a high priority to just keep following the road, so I enjoyed getting pseudo-lost in this wonderful landscape of sagebrush, greasewood, blooming cactus, and a backdrop of eroded hills and mesas. It wasn’t too long before I found both SAGE THRASHERS and SAGE SPARROWS and at least one BLACK-THROATED SPARROW, though no one would cooperate for quality photos. Just before I decided to turn around and head back to the loop, a BURROWING OWL who had been perched on a fence post flew down to stand outside his hole, and was soon joined by his mate who had been perched up on a sage bush. I headed back to pick up U Road towards Brewster Ridge. No sooner had I reached the highest point with the largest area of juniper trees and pinyon pines, than I heard the same sound I had played on the iPod so many times practicing – PINYON JAYS! I jumped out and soon found a raucous group of 6-8 birds calling constantly and flying from bush to bush. With a few good looks under my belt, I grabbed the camera. I quickly learned that for such a boisterous species they sure are stealthy and camera shy. I could not even get one in the frame let alone get a quality shot, a real bummer. While stalking the jays, I flushed a COMMON NIGHTHAWK from the ground, which startled me but was really cool. A BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER made his presence known as well, a familiar sound to send me on my way to points south.
I drove down through Grand Junction and picked up some late lunch/dinner and headed to the Uncompahgre Plateau. Along the road I spotted an AMERICAN KESTREL bobbing his tail on a wire. It was late afternoon, the air was still, and it was hot. Bird activity was predictably slow up on the plateau, but the views were fantastic. I pished up a SPOTTED TOWHEE, which was cool. I wanted to become familiar with the area in daylight because I planned to do some owling after dark. Carson Hole was as pretty as it was intimidating to stand on the edge of. Eventually I found the prescribed spot for listening for Flammulated Owl, parked, and started exploring the area on foot. Before I found many birds, the mosquitoes found me! I made my way to the edge of the canyon on the Telephone Trail; there were lots of people out here camping because it was Saturday. In fact, I walked past a virtual tent city which must have contained twenty people, their kids, and dogs. Hope the owls don’t mind all the company…
I got to the edge of the canyon, where the bugs continued to outnumber the birds. After walking around a little bit more, I started to head for the car. Better late than never, a TOWNSEND’S SOLITAIRE appeared out of thin air at the top of a tall conifer and began to sing. It was soon joined by a female and then a stunning male WESTERN TANAGER, one of my favorite western birds! More birds came in to check things out, including PINE SISKINS and then a song that I knew was a warbler. Soon a pretty VIRGINIA’S WARBLER was spotted bobbing around in a conifer nearby. Good stuff! I retreated from the relentless mosquitoes to the comfort of the vehicle and headed over to Lake Casto to scan for waterfowl. Here I was happy to find RING-NECKED DUCK, GADWALL, AMERICAN COOT, BLUE-WINGED TEAL, MALLARD, beautiful breeding plumage EARED GREBE, and a single GREEN-WINGED TEAL trying to hide on the grassy shore. While I was scanning, a colorful SAGE THRASHER popped up on a sage bush in the foreground, how convenient! I saw what I believed to be huge Mule Deer in the area, but I’ll have to do some research. I headed back to the Telephone Trailhead to have a snack and start staking out the owl.
It was at about 8:30pm when the woods came alive with sound. And it was not birds, but the prolific weekend warrior homo sapiens who had invaded what was probably a nice place of respite during the work week. The tent city campsite was a good 300 yards away from me in the woods, yet the bass from their outrageously loud sound system echoed in my ears. This was compounded by the barks and howling of at least two dogs (and their owners) every few minutes. Great. At 9:50pm I first heard the FLAMMULATED OWL call about five times and stop. I got out and walked around a bit and soon he started back up, closer, and then the sound moved to a pine tree right over my head! The camera trick did not work after a couple tries except to produce a shot so horrible it's funny (but he's in there!). Once he changed trees again I left him alone. On the spot, I decided that since it was “early” I should just go for it and run all the way over to Grand Mesa to pursue another owl lead. On the way down off the Uncompahgre Plateau a COMMON POORWILL flushed off the road in the headlights.
A quick coffee fix from McDonald’s (again!), and I was winding down Hwy 65 from I-70 towards Grand Mesa. When I arrived at Spruce Grove Campground I found it was gated off; though I knew there was a nesting pair in there somewhere there was no way I was walking around by myself in Black Bear country at night far from the vehicle! As suggested, I stopped at the first pull-out on the left after the campground. I shut off the vehicle and rolled down all the windows. No need for playback. Within two minutes the eerie call of a BOREAL OWL came from the treeline! I hopped out and walked in that direction. When the bird called again, it stopped me dead in my tracks. This was unlike any owl I had ever heard before. The sound was vibrating and echoing, and created the illusion of coming from all around me, or even right over my head… but in fact the owl was inside the tree line, invisible to any attempts I made to see him. Incredible! I listened to this owl many times before moving on to another spot near the visitor’s center. Nothing here, and it was well after 1:00am and really cold outside... so I simply turned off the headlights, turned on the heater, and went to sleep. Around 4:15am I rolled down the window and enjoyed incredible star gazing; Jupiter was right in front of me with at least three moons discernable with my binoculars. No more Boreal Owls here, but a GREAT HORNED OWL let me know he was awake. I decided to go back to the pull-out before dawn, and sure enough I started the new day with a few more spooky, amazing vocalizations by the BOREAL OWL. A major highlight of the trip, and well worth the extra miles and time spent.
DAY 7
June 15, 2008
I came down from the heights once again and headed south on US Hwy 50 towards Ouray. When I arrived at Box Canyon Falls, the first thing I noticed was lots of fluttering over at the feeding station at the visitor’s center. I paid my $3.00 and started checking out the birds. Immediately I took note of a loud, piercing call that reminded me a lot of a House Sparrow. But I knew this wasn’t right… and I remembered a friend had likened the call of the EVENING GROSBEAK to a House Sparrow on steroids. My hopes shot upward, and as soon as the feeder was in view sure enough, here was a nice group of males, females, and a couple juveniles feasting! What a bonus, as I had written off this life bird for this trip! Also feasting were chunky CASSIN’S FINCHES and tiny PINE SISKINS, with “Gray-headed” DARK-EYED JUNCOS on the ground with an army of chipmunks.
Next it was on to the falls and their famous Black Swifts, right? Not this time. Though I was super-excited to have stumbled into the Grosbeaks, I was equally disappointed that the swifts were late arriving this year. But I gave it a college try, camping out at the top of the falls for an hour scoping every WHITE-THROATED SWIFT and VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW but failing to turn them into anything else.
Next, I drove a good ways up 361 Road into the canyon. WARBLING VIREOS and ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS were the most common, along with more PINE SISKINS, noisy EVENING GROSBEAKS, a WESTERN TANAGER, a singing HERMIT THRUSH, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, WILSON’S WARBLER, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAKS, and more. I noted that, perhaps more than any other vireo I have observed, the Warbling Vireo is a very active feeder and often hangs upside down like a Chickadee to get at the underside of leaves. Also, I had finally found a mountain road that I just wouldn’t drive on, though it was perfectly safe aside from being a blind curve with no guard rail and a 300-3foot drop – not unlike so many of these gorgeous gravel routes in Colorado. My power over heights is good if I’m on my feet and on solid ground (as opposed to, say, on the Eiffel Tower), but in a vehicle I just get freaked out because I guess I don't feel in control. I parked and birded up the road on foot, and later felt particularly wimpy when a nice older lady was walking her dog on the road near her home – she drives her Cadillac around that curve every day with no problem! Coming down 361 Road back towards Ouray was one of the prettiest drives of the trip.
I had reached the furthest point from Denver that my adventures in Colorado would take me, and though I came up Swiftless, I was in high spirits just enjoying the scenery as I retraced my way north. I made a run into Escalante Canyon just west of the town of Delta looking again for Chukar in this area that many folks had recommended, but it was the hottest, non-birdiest part of the day so instead I found a patch of shade under a rock outcropping and took a siesta in the comfort of the AC. I had a tough call to make for my last chase of the trip. I had GPS coordinates for a Long-eared Owl nest site. I had only realized the day before that it was right where I had already been cruising around in the desert near the town of Mack – oh, well. I didn’t have a GPS unit and I just thought during some down-time to check it out using the DeLorme GPS grid. Well, I realized that I had no idea when the next chance I would have to see this species for the first time would come up, so I went for it. Using good old-fashioned map reading and topography, I retraced my path back west and eventually I found the gully where the nest was supposed to be. But it was huge, and completely filled with dense, short tamarisk trees; perfect for Long-eared Owls, but how in the world would I find them? I decided to just wait it out – and look (again unsuccessfully) for Chukars. Hopefully the owls would make a flying or calling performance before it was too dark to see them. This was not to be, but after last night’s luck with nocturnal species I was OK with missing one. Instead of the owls, I did get some memorable parting views of the desert landscape at sundown, and a cool aerial and audio display from a group of COMMON NIGHTHAWKS as a sort of consolation. I had always heard that crazy “Vroom!” sound that happens after every few of their typical calls on the CD. I finally got a chance to hear it in real life, and learned that it has to do with their primary feather arrangement and how air passes over it. They would fly around calling, then do a dramatic dive almost to the ground (a courtship display) and just at the last possible moment they would pull up, call really loud, and at this exact moment (pulling up) the loud noise would be produced. BREWER’S and LARK SPARROWS, a BLUE GROSBEAK, a boisterous NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD, and WESTERN MEADOWLARKS sang well after dusk and then all fell quiet with no sign of the owls. I decided to drive east on I-70 until I got tired and stopped at a hotel (to sleep in the parking lot, of course!).
In the morning I found some coffee and wireless internet in Vail to check my flight, weather, and birds. I didn’t need to be at the airport until about 4:30pm so I said to myself, “Go get those Ptarmigans!” I arrived at Guella Pass around 10:00am to much better weather than last time. I was able to walk around in shorts, a tee-shirt, and my fleece and only got goose bumps a couple times. Also different was the level of bird activity. I found right away that WILSON’S WARBLERS were all over the place in the low, scrubby bushes. Here was a great chance to study their song and call many times, sometimes two or three birds would be foraging together in the same bush! After hearing it many times, I decided that their call was a lot like a slightly deeper-voiced Winter Wren. Turns out this was not an original idea; when I went and read my Sibley later I saw that he says the same thing (actually, this was kind of a reassuring coincidence). The other common bird out on the tundra was WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, which sang a song that started like the one I am familiar with but ended quite differently. COMMON RAVENS croaked by overhead, and I saw a brownish Falcon sp. flying in the distance but could not make a positive ID. Despite spending nearly three hours in appropriate habitat walking the trails and scanning all the surrounding rocky slopes, the White-tailed Ptarmigan successfully became the last Colorado nemesis bird for me – you gotta have a few to keep you coming back for more!
The last birds of my trip were several wonderful SWAINSON’S HAWKS patrolling the skies around Denver International Airport. As I settled in to get some needed sleep on the plane I was already starting to dream up the next birding adventure to this beautifully diverse state. Maybe a Chicken Run next April???
TOTAL SPECIES: 137
LIFE BIRDS: 22
OTHER BIRDS: 115
NOTABLE LIFER MISSES:
Ferruginous Hawk
White-tailed Ptarmigan
Western Screech Owl
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Long-eared Owl
Black Swift
Chukar
