November 11, 2007
Kind of pitiful, four of us went out looking for a late lunch of baked potatoes to settle our queasy stomachs left over from the flu last week (settled for Wendy's at I76 & Bromley, yeah, yuk).
We drove by Barr Lake (Adams County) and found the 4 Common Loons still circled together. They were below the northern end of the dam when we scoped the lake. Only sparrows at the Visitor Center's feeders were White-crowned and American Tree.
Since we do not know how many of these beautiful fall days our left (temps near 70, little wind) we wanted to go for a walk. So, we continued over to Star K Ranch (Adams) to check out a Long-eared Owl report that was a couple of days old. The report is reliable; however we did not find it.
We spent the last hour of daylight circling the wetlands loop. Quite a few sparrows (White-crowned, American Tree, Song) appeared and sang near the northeast corner of the loop (about 20 minutes before sunset). We found 2 pairs of Red-breasted Nuthatches (3 pairs last weekend) and 6 White-breasted Nuthatches along the loop.
Just after sunset, a Great Horned Owl called from the cottonwoods south and east of the Steak House (for those familiar with the area). An Aurora Open Space Ranger said that there are two nesting pairs in the area of the Star K Ranch and nearby Sand Creek Open Space. This probably keeps down the number of other species of owls in the area.
This area's most "famous" uncommon birds were the January 1, 2005 American Woodcock and December 29, 2002 to March 8, 2003 Red-bellied Woodpecker.
It was a nice evening for some fresh air! No owls were found along the DIA Owl Loop on the trip home.
Kind of pitiful, four of us went out looking for a late lunch of baked potatoes to settle our queasy stomachs left over from the flu last week (settled for Wendy's at I76 & Bromley, yeah, yuk).
We drove by Barr Lake (Adams County) and found the 4 Common Loons still circled together. They were below the northern end of the dam when we scoped the lake. Only sparrows at the Visitor Center's feeders were White-crowned and American Tree.
Since we do not know how many of these beautiful fall days our left (temps near 70, little wind) we wanted to go for a walk. So, we continued over to Star K Ranch (Adams) to check out a Long-eared Owl report that was a couple of days old. The report is reliable; however we did not find it.
We spent the last hour of daylight circling the wetlands loop. Quite a few sparrows (White-crowned, American Tree, Song) appeared and sang near the northeast corner of the loop (about 20 minutes before sunset). We found 2 pairs of Red-breasted Nuthatches (3 pairs last weekend) and 6 White-breasted Nuthatches along the loop.
Just after sunset, a Great Horned Owl called from the cottonwoods south and east of the Steak House (for those familiar with the area). An Aurora Open Space Ranger said that there are two nesting pairs in the area of the Star K Ranch and nearby Sand Creek Open Space. This probably keeps down the number of other species of owls in the area.
This area's most "famous" uncommon birds were the January 1, 2005 American Woodcock and December 29, 2002 to March 8, 2003 Red-bellied Woodpecker.
It was a nice evening for some fresh air! No owls were found along the DIA Owl Loop on the trip home.
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