Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Birding Summit County Today

June 30, 2009

Richard Stevens:

Roger Danka and I headed to Summit County today. It was another beautiful summer day in the mountains. Winds were mild and temperatures in the low 60s.

A walk up to the Loveland Ski area found a pair of Pine Grosbeaks, Mountain Chickadees, Black-capped Chickadees, Common Ravens, American Crows, White-breasted Nuthatches, and quite a few Pine Siskins.

We searched around Loveland Pass for about 2 hours. No White-tailed Ptarmigan were relocated during out stay.

No uncommon birds were found around the Keystone Ski Area. So we decided to hike up Argentine Pass. About 2/3 of the way to the old building up the pass, we ran into a wandering male White-tailed Ptarmigan. No uncommon birds were found.

Our trip down was timed to start after sunset. Winds were calm which is strange for this area and we could almost hear a pin drop.

A Northern Pygmy-Owl answered our recordings at about 3/4 mile from the parking area at Montezuma Road and Highway 6. A second Northern Pygmy-Owl called about 80 yards west of our first discovery. Both were somewhere in the woods south of the trail.

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