Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Adams County Birding

January 17, 2012

Richard Stevens:

This morning, Robin Quintanilla, Mark Talbott and I drove the roads east of Barr Lake State Park (Adams County).

Our first stop was the area west of Harvest Road and 138th avenues. This rewarded us with distant views of the darker Snowy Owl. It was quite a ways west of 138th avenue. We did not find the lighter (adult) Snowy Owl.

We continued around the DIA Owl Loop where a nice assortment of raptors was observed. Two Ferruginous Hawks one of which was a dark morph (east of Trussville Road and 120th avenue) were found.

Our search for Horned Larks and possible longspurs or Snow Buntings was not very successful. Only a handful of Horned Larks flew around public roads.

Other raptors included: Prairie Falcon, one Rough-legged Hawk, nine Red-tailed Hawks, four American Kestrels and a Great Horned Owl.

A stop at a friend's home added a Barn Owl to our day list!

Few birds lingered at Barr Lake State Park.

We continued to the South Platte Birding Area (newly signed and named). Here a pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes was swimming on the Platte River just north of the green and white tower.

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