Sunday, June 7, 2009

Eastern Plains and Mountains

June 6, 2009

Richard Stevens:

David Neal, Carson Denison, and I found ourselves at Crow Valley Campground (Weld) at first light. Nothing uncommon was found and we continued north to Murphy's Pasture. Several McCown's Longspurs were observed along CR 96, but we did not find one of the few Chestnut-collared Longspurs usually in the area.

A drive up the field south of CR 96 at 1.7 miles west of CR 77 relocated 2 Mountain Plovers.

We continued west to the Mountain Plover Loop and relocated another 2 Mountain Plovers in the field north of CR 94 and CR 61. Here additional McCown's Longspurs and Lark Buntings were found, but still no Chestnut-collared Longspurs.

In order to find Chestnut-collared Longspurs we drove up to the field southeast of CR 114 and highway 85. We walked toward the windmill about 1.0 mile south of CR 114. Two male Chestnut-collared Longspurs were found as we only had to hike about halfway to the windmill.

After dinner we drove up to Pennock Pass (Larimer) where I was able to relocate a Flammulated Owl. Afterwards we continued west to Cameron Pass and found a Boreal Owl to add to our trip list. Although the Boreal Owl took us quite a bit longer to find.

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