September 23 and 24, 2007
Sunday
Joe Sizemore and I started a two day owling trip into the northern mountains. The weather was not cooperative. We ran into high winds and rain. Later we even went owling in snow of about an inch.
Our first stop was the Cow Creek section of Rocky Mountain National Park (Larimer County). We arrived about 90 minutes before sunrise hiked a mile west to the junction of the 3 trails. We thought that we heard a Common Poorwill briefly. However, we only heard it once and never located it.
Once we reached the bridge over Cow Creek, things were pretty quiet. We hung around until sunrise and then headed back east toward our car. Just east of the stairs (about 0.8 miles west of the parking area), we heard a Northern Pygmy-Owl. Carefully we walked about 30 yards north of the trail and were able to see it!
Things were quiet the rest of the hike. On the trip west we saw many Pygmy Nuthatches, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, and 5 White-breasted Nuthatches. One Brown Creeper and a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers were just about all seen.
A brief stop at Dixon Reservoir in Fort Collins was not productive (plenty of mosquitoes though). We checked several campgrounds and picnic areas along Hwy 14 on the way up to Pennock Pass. No owls were found.
Once at Pennock Pass Road (Larimer County Road 44H) our luck started to change. It was dusk now and we found a Common Poorwill on the road. Later we had 3 Flammulated Owls at different locations answer our playback recordings.
We reached Cameron Pass (Larimer/Jackson Counties) around 12:30am. Winds were 40+ mph and there was a rain/snow mix. Finding Boreal Owls in this was next to impossible. So we continued on to a cabin at Gould for the night. I got up about 4:00am to check on the weather. Winds were still pretty strong and a trip back up to Cameron Pass was cancelled for the morning.
Monday
In the early morning we drove around Jackson County Roads (especially CR 25) in search of Greater Sage-Grouse and other birds. We found a couple of Brewer's Sparrows and one Sage Thrasher that was late in leaving the area. No Greater Sage-Grouse, but they are always hit and miss when not on their leks.
We continued to Steamboat Springs to see if the Sharp-tailed Grouse had moved into town for the winter (they had not). It is amazing that they roost in the winter right in the middle of a subdivision along Fish Creek Road.
A trip up to FR 550 to search for White-winged Crossbills was not successful. Steamboat State Park was slow. We did see 2 Sandhill Cranes fly over. We checked at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass for White-winged Crossbills; also without success.
A drive around the old Coalmont Greater Sage-Grouse Lek near dusk did not turn up any birds.
When we reached Cameron Pass it was snowing quite hard. However as sometimes is the case, there was no wind! We finally were able to find a Boreal Owl on the east side of the pass! There was just before midnight and counted as a 9/24 sighting.
We then had to scurry down to Denver in order for Joe to make his flight home.
Sunday
Joe Sizemore and I started a two day owling trip into the northern mountains. The weather was not cooperative. We ran into high winds and rain. Later we even went owling in snow of about an inch.
Our first stop was the Cow Creek section of Rocky Mountain National Park (Larimer County). We arrived about 90 minutes before sunrise hiked a mile west to the junction of the 3 trails. We thought that we heard a Common Poorwill briefly. However, we only heard it once and never located it.
Once we reached the bridge over Cow Creek, things were pretty quiet. We hung around until sunrise and then headed back east toward our car. Just east of the stairs (about 0.8 miles west of the parking area), we heard a Northern Pygmy-Owl. Carefully we walked about 30 yards north of the trail and were able to see it!
Things were quiet the rest of the hike. On the trip west we saw many Pygmy Nuthatches, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, and 5 White-breasted Nuthatches. One Brown Creeper and a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers were just about all seen.
A brief stop at Dixon Reservoir in Fort Collins was not productive (plenty of mosquitoes though). We checked several campgrounds and picnic areas along Hwy 14 on the way up to Pennock Pass. No owls were found.
Once at Pennock Pass Road (Larimer County Road 44H) our luck started to change. It was dusk now and we found a Common Poorwill on the road. Later we had 3 Flammulated Owls at different locations answer our playback recordings.
We reached Cameron Pass (Larimer/Jackson Counties) around 12:30am. Winds were 40+ mph and there was a rain/snow mix. Finding Boreal Owls in this was next to impossible. So we continued on to a cabin at Gould for the night. I got up about 4:00am to check on the weather. Winds were still pretty strong and a trip back up to Cameron Pass was cancelled for the morning.
Monday
In the early morning we drove around Jackson County Roads (especially CR 25) in search of Greater Sage-Grouse and other birds. We found a couple of Brewer's Sparrows and one Sage Thrasher that was late in leaving the area. No Greater Sage-Grouse, but they are always hit and miss when not on their leks.
We continued to Steamboat Springs to see if the Sharp-tailed Grouse had moved into town for the winter (they had not). It is amazing that they roost in the winter right in the middle of a subdivision along Fish Creek Road.
A trip up to FR 550 to search for White-winged Crossbills was not successful. Steamboat State Park was slow. We did see 2 Sandhill Cranes fly over. We checked at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass for White-winged Crossbills; also without success.
A drive around the old Coalmont Greater Sage-Grouse Lek near dusk did not turn up any birds.
When we reached Cameron Pass it was snowing quite hard. However as sometimes is the case, there was no wind! We finally were able to find a Boreal Owl on the east side of the pass! There was just before midnight and counted as a 9/24 sighting.
We then had to scurry down to Denver in order for Joe to make his flight home.
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