Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Search for Snowy Owls!

January 23, 2012

Richard Stevens:

Rebecca and I took our own bird feeder to Star K Ranch, Adams County (closed on Monday and Tuesdays, they take down their feeders).

The Harris's Sparrow eventually arrived below the closest feeder to the parking area. However, 90 Red winged Blackbirds also flew to the feeders. The Red wings kept the Harris's and White crowned Sparrows deep in bushes. There never was a good photo opportunity in 2 hours.

After lunch, Rebecca and I drove around DIA for about 4 hours. This trip, we concentrated on the south side of the Airport.

Thousands of Horned Larks were north of the Front Range Airpark (southeast of Denver International Airport). We managed to pick out 2 Lapland Longspurs among the flocks. Most of these flocks were along Hudson Mile Road, north of 56th avenue.

There were dozens of white bags in the fields we passed. Late in the afternoon, we stopped to scope another "white bag". This one turned out to be an adult Snowy Owl! Yes, we were surprised after looking at several dozen white bags. Our scope was set up along 56th avenue (about 100 yards east of E470, the Toll Road, I mention this in case the Toll Highway is not called E470 here).

We sent out two RBA text messages and four birders came by before it was too dark to see the Snowy Owl.

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