Saturday, July 19, 2008

Return to Pennock & Cameron Passes

June 27, 2008

Gary Weston and I turned north today toward Fort Collins and west. Our target birds were owls further west, but we stopped for a hike at Lory State Park (Larimer).

We hiked to Arthur's Rock and back in search of Northern Pygmy-Owls or Northern Saw-whet Owls; without success in either.

Just after civil twilight we called in a Common Poorwill with our playback recordings. The bird was only about 100 yards inside the entrance and stood on a Miner's Candle.

We then drove up Rist Canyon and stopped at half a dozen locations where Northern Pygmy-Owls have been found in the past. Unfortunately none were heard today.

Our next stop was Pennock Pass (Larimer). We enjoyed better success here. Our Flammulated Owl count was 5!

Our trek continued west and we stopped at a dozen spots where Boreal Owls have been found in the past. Again we enjoyed fair success with 3 Boreal Owls (2 heard and 1 observed).

We hiked most of the night, finding our last and only "seen" Boreal Owl up Ruby Jewell Road at 4:28am.

In my experience, the best times to find Boreal Owls are an hour and a half after sunset and an hour before sunrise. I would have to check my notes, my I seem to remember reading that the owls stay briefly around their nesting areas and then fly away and hunt most of the night?

June 28, 2008

We headed back to Denver after looking for hummingbirds. Both the KOA Campgrounds (outside of the Colorado State Forest entrance) and the Store at Gould enjoyed visits by 3 species of hummingbirds (Broad-tailed, Rufous, and one Calliope Hummingbird each).

A detour was made at Chambers Lake (Jackson). A hike along the east side of the lake was rewarded with an American Three-toed Woodpecker sighting. From the obvious pullover along the highway, we walked directly west to the lake and then north. The woodpecker was approximately 600 yards north of our turn from west to north.

In the past, nesting has been confirmed in this area. We saw nothing that would indicate such today.

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