Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Foothills Birding

September 30, 2008

Richard Stevens:

Mark Hanson and I started our birding day on Mt Evans (Clear Creek County). We found 2 Brown-capped Rosy Finches at the northeast corner of Summit Lake. Another 3-4 Brown-capped Rosy Finches were at the northwest corner. We hiked about a half mile up (south) Mt Evans Road (which is closed to vehicles at Summit Lake) but did not find any White-tailed Ptarmigan.

A quick 30 minute stop at Genesee Mt Park (Jefferson) did not find any Williamson's Sapsuckers.

Our final stop was Pine Valley Ranch Park and Pike National Forest (Jefferson). We had to hike all the way up the Strawberry Jack Trail to the Parkview Trail before running into an American Three-toed Woodpecker. A female was approximately in the same location reported by Merlynn Brown last week (several hundred yards south of the Parkview Trail).

After I dropped Mark off, I went over to nearby Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe). As I got out of my car the dark mantled Gull that others are calling a Lesser Black-backed Gull flew along the north shore line of the Lake Loop. It was difficult to miss, large and dark mantled.

From this vantage point I saw 4 (up to 6) Sabine's Gulls. A Red-necked Grebe was fairly close to shore and there could have been 2 Red-necked Grebes. The many boats were chasing the gulls and waterfowl around quite a bit. I never located the Long-tailed Jaeger (if it is still there). Two small terns (definitely not Forster's Terns) stayed quite a distance from my location.

Many American White Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants, a few Horned Grebes, Eared Grebes, and Pied-billed Grebes were among many Western Grebes. I did not see any Clark's Grebes. Also did not have time (daylight) to search for the Mew Gull.

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