February 12 to 15th, 2010
Bryan Ehlmann:
I believe that updating the Trip Blog has been retarded due to the lack of my report. Sorry, it feels too much like homework. They wanted me to fill in the gaps before updating to keep the reports in chronological order.
Over the course of three days, nights really, Richard Stevens and I found nine Boreal Owls. Many of the sites are not near roads. We both snow shoed and used cross-country skied to reach the various locations. Snowshoes were slower, but neither of us is proficient enough to deal with steep mountain slopes on cross-country skis. Fifty+ year old men probably should not be skiing down slopes on cross-county skis in any event, especially at night.
A note of safety, both Richard and I have taken avalanche classes. While this doesn't mean we are experts on the subject, we have become aware of the possibilities. Likewise, we both carry avalanche beacons at all times when in the mountains in winter.
Even "tame" landscape such as Loveland Pass can be dangerous. Loveland Pass has had two avalanches on the west side in the past month. These were where we considered the best location to search for Ptarmigan. Many "experts" have fallen prey to avalanches including one of Richard's good friends.
On several occasions, we have gone owling along Argentine Pass trail. There is a "famous" section of the trail, famous for avalanches. I won't go further into whether the decision to go on such trails is questionable. Be careful!
Richard has been monitoring Boreal Owls on Cameron Pass and the Colorado State Forest for about six years now. He has GPS waypoints on previous nesting locations. We wanted to explore these this weekend while testing some winter sporting equipment supplied by a friend of Richards.
Our success rate was 9 out of 41 locations surveyed. We considered this better than good! We passed the Colorado State Forest Visitor's Center on several times during the day and found a few Brown-capped Rosy Finches visiting the feeders on several occasions.
As a side note, the tent, coats, gloves and pants kept us very warm even with temperatures near zero at night. They should come in handy in future wintering owling trips. Our plan it to snowshoe up Pennock Pass in a month to find an early date for Flammulated Owl arrival. Normally, Pennock Pass is closed due to snowdrifts way into late May or early June. I am not sure I am looking forward to 9 to 13 mile one way trips; but they should be interesting.
Back to owling, while the lowlands experienced snowstorms this weekend, they missed the high mountains. We saw a sprinkling of snow every afternoon and night; there was little accumulation. Fortunately, we experienced calm winds. Most nights we could have heard a pin drop as the finely grained snow fell lightly and quietly. Conditions were superb for hearing the Boreal Owls!
Several of our trips were 4 miles, one way, off a road. Even in winter, there is quite a lot of noise in the forest at night. This makes the trips very interesting. Luckily, bears are hibernating, right?
Bryan Ehlmann:
I believe that updating the Trip Blog has been retarded due to the lack of my report. Sorry, it feels too much like homework. They wanted me to fill in the gaps before updating to keep the reports in chronological order.
Over the course of three days, nights really, Richard Stevens and I found nine Boreal Owls. Many of the sites are not near roads. We both snow shoed and used cross-country skied to reach the various locations. Snowshoes were slower, but neither of us is proficient enough to deal with steep mountain slopes on cross-country skis. Fifty+ year old men probably should not be skiing down slopes on cross-county skis in any event, especially at night.
A note of safety, both Richard and I have taken avalanche classes. While this doesn't mean we are experts on the subject, we have become aware of the possibilities. Likewise, we both carry avalanche beacons at all times when in the mountains in winter.
Even "tame" landscape such as Loveland Pass can be dangerous. Loveland Pass has had two avalanches on the west side in the past month. These were where we considered the best location to search for Ptarmigan. Many "experts" have fallen prey to avalanches including one of Richard's good friends.
On several occasions, we have gone owling along Argentine Pass trail. There is a "famous" section of the trail, famous for avalanches. I won't go further into whether the decision to go on such trails is questionable. Be careful!
Richard has been monitoring Boreal Owls on Cameron Pass and the Colorado State Forest for about six years now. He has GPS waypoints on previous nesting locations. We wanted to explore these this weekend while testing some winter sporting equipment supplied by a friend of Richards.
Our success rate was 9 out of 41 locations surveyed. We considered this better than good! We passed the Colorado State Forest Visitor's Center on several times during the day and found a few Brown-capped Rosy Finches visiting the feeders on several occasions.
As a side note, the tent, coats, gloves and pants kept us very warm even with temperatures near zero at night. They should come in handy in future wintering owling trips. Our plan it to snowshoe up Pennock Pass in a month to find an early date for Flammulated Owl arrival. Normally, Pennock Pass is closed due to snowdrifts way into late May or early June. I am not sure I am looking forward to 9 to 13 mile one way trips; but they should be interesting.
Back to owling, while the lowlands experienced snowstorms this weekend, they missed the high mountains. We saw a sprinkling of snow every afternoon and night; there was little accumulation. Fortunately, we experienced calm winds. Most nights we could have heard a pin drop as the finely grained snow fell lightly and quietly. Conditions were superb for hearing the Boreal Owls!
Several of our trips were 4 miles, one way, off a road. Even in winter, there is quite a lot of noise in the forest at night. This makes the trips very interesting. Luckily, bears are hibernating, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment