Bryan Ehlmann: Hello cobirders,
July 26
Over the next three weeks I will be leading the CoBus summer birding tour. Sue and I are the core of the group and we will be joined at times by up to 7 other birders including Richard Stevens, Rebecca Kosten, Gary Weston, Jerry Petrosky, a few other Colorado birders and a couple of out of state birders.
Unfortunately the format of this blog doesn't allow chronological order of our trip. See Parts 1 ,2 and 3 below.
Our groups really took diverse routes today. One birded north of Blue Mesa Reservoir and the other south.
Ehlmann group:
Two of our main target birds today were Yellow-billed Cuckoos and Western Screech-Owls. We checked several probable habitats for both. I dislike giving up one of our techniques, but whenever we ran into interested locals we played recordings on our IPOD to see if anyone had heard cuckoos or Western Screech-Owls.
Live and learn, both birds were found with the help of local residents. We heard of two possible locations for Yellow-billed Cuckoos. One of them panned out and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo answered our recordings (between Gunnison and Blue Mesa Reservoir).
One resident led us to another who knew another and finally we were given locations of two Western Screech-Owls. They have been heard year round and surely nest in their territories. One cooperative female landowner even took us on her property to see a Western Screech-Owl. She had seen young just a week earlier.
No matter what happened during the rest of our day, we had a good one. Campgrounds birded included Soap Creek and Commissary up Forest Road 721.
We birded Forest Road 724 about an hour before dusk and were rewarded with two calling Common Poorwill. Between Forest Roads 724 and 721 we added 3 Northern Saw-whet Owls to our night list.
Our big miss, though not unexpected, was a couple of hour search before dawn for Long-eared Owls. We got wind that they were in the area; but none responded to our tapes. We were handicapped by having to stay on public property.
Weston group:
We had previous knowledge for both Flammulated and Boreal Owls. Our dilemma was arriving at an out of the way location just after sunset. Especially because we wanted to visit other places also. We wanted to drive CR 30 to Vulcan about an hour before sunrise. This gave us five hours to explore CR 26 (Sapinero Mesa Road).
After leaving Highway 149, CR 26 is known for Three-toed Woodpeckers and Ponderosa Pine and Conifer Forests. We first drove to the south side of Blue Mesa Reservoir, counted birds and backtracked toward hwy 149.
During a 4 mile hike on the BLM land we found 4 Three-toed Woodpeckers (3 Locations) and a pair of Williamson's Sapsuckers.
Next we hurried to CR 30. With the help of many stops, 2 Flammulated Owls (2 Locations) and a very fortunate Boreal Owl calling were added to our list.
We returned to CR 26 and stopped every 0.5 mile to play recordings. Another Flammulated Owl and 2 Northern Pygmy-Owls (2 Locations) were encountered.
Just before civil twilight we made it to Big Blue CG off Alpine Road (Forest Road 868). It's not the easiest place to get to, but our bonus was hearing another Northern Pygmy-Owl.
July 26
Over the next three weeks I will be leading the CoBus summer birding tour. Sue and I are the core of the group and we will be joined at times by up to 7 other birders including Richard Stevens, Rebecca Kosten, Gary Weston, Jerry Petrosky, a few other Colorado birders and a couple of out of state birders.
Unfortunately the format of this blog doesn't allow chronological order of our trip. See Parts 1 ,2 and 3 below.
Our groups really took diverse routes today. One birded north of Blue Mesa Reservoir and the other south.
Ehlmann group:
Two of our main target birds today were Yellow-billed Cuckoos and Western Screech-Owls. We checked several probable habitats for both. I dislike giving up one of our techniques, but whenever we ran into interested locals we played recordings on our IPOD to see if anyone had heard cuckoos or Western Screech-Owls.
Live and learn, both birds were found with the help of local residents. We heard of two possible locations for Yellow-billed Cuckoos. One of them panned out and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo answered our recordings (between Gunnison and Blue Mesa Reservoir).
One resident led us to another who knew another and finally we were given locations of two Western Screech-Owls. They have been heard year round and surely nest in their territories. One cooperative female landowner even took us on her property to see a Western Screech-Owl. She had seen young just a week earlier.
No matter what happened during the rest of our day, we had a good one. Campgrounds birded included Soap Creek and Commissary up Forest Road 721.
We birded Forest Road 724 about an hour before dusk and were rewarded with two calling Common Poorwill. Between Forest Roads 724 and 721 we added 3 Northern Saw-whet Owls to our night list.
Our big miss, though not unexpected, was a couple of hour search before dawn for Long-eared Owls. We got wind that they were in the area; but none responded to our tapes. We were handicapped by having to stay on public property.
Weston group:
We had previous knowledge for both Flammulated and Boreal Owls. Our dilemma was arriving at an out of the way location just after sunset. Especially because we wanted to visit other places also. We wanted to drive CR 30 to Vulcan about an hour before sunrise. This gave us five hours to explore CR 26 (Sapinero Mesa Road).
After leaving Highway 149, CR 26 is known for Three-toed Woodpeckers and Ponderosa Pine and Conifer Forests. We first drove to the south side of Blue Mesa Reservoir, counted birds and backtracked toward hwy 149.
During a 4 mile hike on the BLM land we found 4 Three-toed Woodpeckers (3 Locations) and a pair of Williamson's Sapsuckers.
Next we hurried to CR 30. With the help of many stops, 2 Flammulated Owls (2 Locations) and a very fortunate Boreal Owl calling were added to our list.
We returned to CR 26 and stopped every 0.5 mile to play recordings. Another Flammulated Owl and 2 Northern Pygmy-Owls (2 Locations) were encountered.
Just before civil twilight we made it to Big Blue CG off Alpine Road (Forest Road 868). It's not the easiest place to get to, but our bonus was hearing another Northern Pygmy-Owl.
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