Friday, January 7, 2011

Wheat Ridge Greenbelt, Jefferson County

January 7, 2011

Richard Stevens:

I spent about 5 hours hiking the Wheat Ridge Greenbelt (Jefferson County) trail from approximately 1 mile north of Youngfield to Kipling Avenue. Target birds were stub-tailed wrens and Eastern Screech-Owls.

No wrens were detected. I did encounter one Eastern Screech-Owl! After bad experiences with photographers harassing owls, I do not reveal exact locations anymore.

Few birds were around. Four Black-capped Chickadees, a few Northern Flickers and a couple of Black-billed Magpies were just about it. Both Bass Lakes and Tabor Lake were ice covered. Prospect Pond only had a small open water area.

The highlight was a White-throated Sparrow west of the Tree Bridge trail (where it goes uphill). While it could be seen from the public trail, I have a friend who lives along the ridge. I walked over to his house and looked down onto the hillside for better looks at the sparrow.

Again, no owls were found along the DIA Owl on my way home. It was another great mild winter day in Colorado (temperatures in the 50s; winds were calm).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Has anyone noticed a lack of GHO nests this year? If yes, ideas as to why?

Birder Rich said...

Yes we have discussed it. Numbers starting falling rapidly last year. West Nile Virus, lost of habitat, and humans, humans, humans.