January 17, 2009
Richard Stevens:
I joined the Boulder Bird Club trip to Valmont Reservoir, Boulder County Saturday. 60 degree weather and little wind resulted in less birds than previous trips.
The highlight was the only Gull that our group saw in the first 2.5 hours. It was an adult Mew Gull; pretty close to us too!
A good variety of raptors and falcons (as Ted Floyd told us, falcons are no longer raptors, but related to parrots?). Just a few land birds a couple of American Tree Sparrows and Song Sparrows and 2 American Pipits (again our group). So many birders showed up that we were assigned to 4 groups. Beautiful day.
Because of all the open water, I suspected that the Gull influx at sunset would be poor (turned out to be true). So I drove up to Wellington Wildlife Area, Larimer County to search for Short-eared or any owls.
The area has much human growth now and I suspect that the usual wintering Short-eared Owls and occasional Northern Saw-whet Owl may be a thing of the past. The only owls I found were two Great Horned Owls calling to each other. Always a nice experience for the end of my birding day!
Richard Stevens:
I joined the Boulder Bird Club trip to Valmont Reservoir, Boulder County Saturday. 60 degree weather and little wind resulted in less birds than previous trips.
The highlight was the only Gull that our group saw in the first 2.5 hours. It was an adult Mew Gull; pretty close to us too!
A good variety of raptors and falcons (as Ted Floyd told us, falcons are no longer raptors, but related to parrots?). Just a few land birds a couple of American Tree Sparrows and Song Sparrows and 2 American Pipits (again our group). So many birders showed up that we were assigned to 4 groups. Beautiful day.
Because of all the open water, I suspected that the Gull influx at sunset would be poor (turned out to be true). So I drove up to Wellington Wildlife Area, Larimer County to search for Short-eared or any owls.
The area has much human growth now and I suspect that the usual wintering Short-eared Owls and occasional Northern Saw-whet Owl may be a thing of the past. The only owls I found were two Great Horned Owls calling to each other. Always a nice experience for the end of my birding day!
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