Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Return to Rocky Mountain Arsenal

October 3, 2007

I enjoyed my walk around Rocky Mountain Arsenal so much last Saturday that I had to repeat it today. Temperatures reached the 80s and winds were mild during my 10 hour hike! I took many photos for an article in next month's Colorado Field Notes.

The highlight of the day was definitely a Philadelphia Vireo. I watched the bird for about an hour as it fed in the locust trees at the extreme northeast corner of Ladora Lake. Later I found 2 Townsend's Warblers along the Woodland Trail (as it runs east to west, just west of "D" road).

I covered every public trail out there at least once; several I walked twice. Total mileage: approximately 10.5 miles.

Other birds found included a Clay-colored Sparrow, Brewer's Sparrows, Green-tailed Towhee, Spotted Towhee, Marsh Wren, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson's Warblers, a flock of 19 Yellow-rumped Warblers, 61 Ruby-crowned Kinglets, 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet (not with any Ruby-crowned Kinglets), 1 Western Kingbird, and a Peregrine Falcon (flew over Ladora Lake several times).

The birding day was much better than Tuesday's four hours at Barr Lake where I only saw 47 birds (not species and not counting waterfowl, starlings, or flickers). See blog for that report. I did get my first county Cassin's Kingbird at Barr Lake (at mile marker 8.0).

On a personal note: the Philadelphia Vireo was my 400th non target bird in Colorado (no previous knowledge such as RBA, word of mouth, etc). I had been stuck on 399 for 3 or 4 years now.

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