Saturday, July 28, 2007

Grand Mesa Again

Wednesday July 18, 2007

During the day we hiked several trails on the Grand Mesa. A Dusky Grouse was observed roadside and just south of the Picnic Area. We spent 2 hours hiking up the trail (can’t remember the name of the trail, first picnic area south of Spruce Grove Campgrounds) to where I had cross-country skied to a small lake a few years ago. (It was one of those rare times where the snow was deep enough to ski, but the lake was not frozen; probably does not happen too often). The highlights besides seeing Red Crossbills and other species of a pine forest was a male Northern Goshawk.

Another stop was near mile marker 34 where White-winged Crossbills have been reported several times in the past. We did not see any today, but while out of the car, we heard a booming Dusky Grouse. We wandered through the woods for a while. The bird was close, but heck if we ever could see him.

At several stops we found Red Crossbills and Cassin's Finches. No White-winged Crossbills were found the whole day. After dark we stopped at 18 locations to search for owls. Our total for this night was 2 Boreal Owls and a Northern Pygmy-Owl.

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