December 23, 2010
Richard Stevens:
Thirty minutes before sunrise, Bryan Ehlmann, Jacob Washburn and I listened for Northern Pygmy-Owls at the western Reynolds Park parking area. None made a sound. However, when we hiked to the Oxen Draw trail at Elkhorn Trail, Jacob pointed out one deep in the brush along the draw!
While watching the owl, we heard a bird just suspiciously sounded like a grouse. A short walk east of the Oxen Draw/Elkhorn intersection found a Dusky Grouse about 20 feet up in a pine tree!
We decided not the hike in the snow and ice up the Oxen Draw trail and skipped a search for American Three-toed Woodpeckers.
Instead, we drove the short distance to Pine Valley Ranch Park (Jefferson). Here we hiked the Pine Lake trail to the Buck Gulch trail to Strawberry trail. On the hike back, we observed a male Three-toed Woodpecker flying across the Buck Gulch trail at 40 yards south of Pine Lake trail.
Our main goal was to do some snowshoeing, hopefully up Guanella Pass (Park/Clear Creek Counties. We did not expect to make it to the top of Guanella Pass after the reports this week of feet of snowfall in the mountains.
This turned out to be true. Even in our 4 wheel jeep, we only got as far as 7 miles west of Grant (highway 285). We turned around at the Campgrounds below Duck Lake. It is 5.5 miles from this Campground to the gate at Duck Lake. Then it is another 1.5 miles to the Summit at Guanella Pass. Just a little too far and energetic for us today. An unanimous vote decided to leave a White-tailed Ptarmigan search for another day!
We snowshoed around the Campgrounds (I am spacing the name) looking for Northern Pygmy-Owls and/or American Three-toed Woodpeckers; without success.
A quick detour to Kenosha Pass (Park) also found few birds. Again, we snowshoed around hoping to run into a Northern Pygmy-Owl, Three-toed Woodpecker or Rosy Finches; without success.
After dropping Bryan and Jacob off at their cars, I drove over to Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe). Hundreds of gulls (no uncommon gulls) were observed from the southwest boat ramp).
By the time, it took me to drive 10 minutes to the Lake Loop, less than a dozen gulls remained. I can only guess that the gulls spent the night at Aurora Reservoir (Arapahoe, about 7 miles away).
Richard Stevens:
Thirty minutes before sunrise, Bryan Ehlmann, Jacob Washburn and I listened for Northern Pygmy-Owls at the western Reynolds Park parking area. None made a sound. However, when we hiked to the Oxen Draw trail at Elkhorn Trail, Jacob pointed out one deep in the brush along the draw!
While watching the owl, we heard a bird just suspiciously sounded like a grouse. A short walk east of the Oxen Draw/Elkhorn intersection found a Dusky Grouse about 20 feet up in a pine tree!
We decided not the hike in the snow and ice up the Oxen Draw trail and skipped a search for American Three-toed Woodpeckers.
Instead, we drove the short distance to Pine Valley Ranch Park (Jefferson). Here we hiked the Pine Lake trail to the Buck Gulch trail to Strawberry trail. On the hike back, we observed a male Three-toed Woodpecker flying across the Buck Gulch trail at 40 yards south of Pine Lake trail.
Our main goal was to do some snowshoeing, hopefully up Guanella Pass (Park/Clear Creek Counties. We did not expect to make it to the top of Guanella Pass after the reports this week of feet of snowfall in the mountains.
This turned out to be true. Even in our 4 wheel jeep, we only got as far as 7 miles west of Grant (highway 285). We turned around at the Campgrounds below Duck Lake. It is 5.5 miles from this Campground to the gate at Duck Lake. Then it is another 1.5 miles to the Summit at Guanella Pass. Just a little too far and energetic for us today. An unanimous vote decided to leave a White-tailed Ptarmigan search for another day!
We snowshoed around the Campgrounds (I am spacing the name) looking for Northern Pygmy-Owls and/or American Three-toed Woodpeckers; without success.
A quick detour to Kenosha Pass (Park) also found few birds. Again, we snowshoed around hoping to run into a Northern Pygmy-Owl, Three-toed Woodpecker or Rosy Finches; without success.
After dropping Bryan and Jacob off at their cars, I drove over to Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe). Hundreds of gulls (no uncommon gulls) were observed from the southwest boat ramp).
By the time, it took me to drive 10 minutes to the Lake Loop, less than a dozen gulls remained. I can only guess that the gulls spent the night at Aurora Reservoir (Arapahoe, about 7 miles away).
No comments:
Post a Comment