Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Adams, Boulder & Arapahoe County Birds

October 5, 2010

Richard Stevens:

Rebecca Kosten and I went back to Barr Lake (Adams County) trying to relocate the Winter Wren I saw yesterday; without success. Yesterday, it was near a bush almost underneath one of the closed banding nets. No telling where it went when they went down the canal to open up the net.

We did find a Nashville Warbler and Hermit Thrush in the bushes at mile marker 8.2 (just south of the Pioneer Trail). This group of bushes is one of my favorite places to find thrushes in the park. Whether this Nashville Warbler was the same one I found yesterday at mm 8.7, I will never know (I suspect it is not).

Afterwards, we drove up to South Boulder County to search for the Sprague's Pipit. The day was again fantastic with little wind and cool low 70s temperatures. Just too nice to go home.

We searched for 2.5 hours for the Sprague's Pipit; without success. Two Vesper Sparrows, one Clay-colored Sparrow and seventeen Horned Larks were encountered as we crisscrossed the eastern side of the mesa (northeast of the intersection of South 66th avenue and Marshall Road).

Several Red-tailed Hawks including a dark morph flew overhead during our stay. This did not make the many prairie dogs happy.

After a late lunch, we drove through Cherry Creek State Park (Arapahoe). The juvenile Sabine's Gull was flying around the southeast corner of the lake. We relocated the Red-necked Grebe reported earlier in the day by Glenn Walbek. Missed the 2 Red-necked Phalaropes Glenn also reported.

A dusk, we found several Burrowing Owls along the DIA Owl Loop. No Short-eared Owls flew about during our trek.

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