July 11, 2012
Richard Stevens:
We journeyed up to Mt Evans today. Temperatures were in the cool 50s; winds were mild.
The hummingbird feeders were being refilled when we passed the Echo Lodge so we continued to Summit Lake. Four to six Brown-capped Rosy Finches walked around the rocks at the southwest corner. One walked within 10 yards of us!
Many American Pipits joined the Rosy Finches. A White-crowned Sparrow flew up to a road sign and filled the air with his song.
It is summer and the parking area at the top of Mt Evans was quite congested. It was worth skipping. We stopped briefly at the first pullover south of the upper parking area. No White-tailed Ptarmigan were walking around among the hordes of people. We did find another pair of Brown-capped Rosy Finches.
We scanned the field east of Summit Lake; unfortunately, no Ptarmigan were found in the brief time allotted for the task. No time to walk around searching for Ptarmigan, we headed back to Echo Lodge.
Only one of their feeders had been filled. The hummingbirds were mostly female Broad-tailed and only a couple of males. No Rufous or Calliope visited the limited perches.
A large/huge hummingbird was a surprise. She only visited once for about 20 seconds. I noticed greenish, streaked or barred underparts. Looked more like a Magnificent Hummingbird as I would expect grayish, unstreaked underparts if it had been a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird.
I could only find 2 of the young Barrow's Goldeneyes. Hopefully the others were in the weeds at the southeast corner of Echo Lake (and not the victims of turtles or fish).
Our limited time was over and we headed back to Denver. I passed through the DIA Owl Loop on the way home. Burrowing Owls as usual, were at the prairie dog town at 3.4 miles east of Tower Road and 96th Avenue.
Richard Stevens:
We journeyed up to Mt Evans today. Temperatures were in the cool 50s; winds were mild.
The hummingbird feeders were being refilled when we passed the Echo Lodge so we continued to Summit Lake. Four to six Brown-capped Rosy Finches walked around the rocks at the southwest corner. One walked within 10 yards of us!
Many American Pipits joined the Rosy Finches. A White-crowned Sparrow flew up to a road sign and filled the air with his song.
It is summer and the parking area at the top of Mt Evans was quite congested. It was worth skipping. We stopped briefly at the first pullover south of the upper parking area. No White-tailed Ptarmigan were walking around among the hordes of people. We did find another pair of Brown-capped Rosy Finches.
We scanned the field east of Summit Lake; unfortunately, no Ptarmigan were found in the brief time allotted for the task. No time to walk around searching for Ptarmigan, we headed back to Echo Lodge.
Only one of their feeders had been filled. The hummingbirds were mostly female Broad-tailed and only a couple of males. No Rufous or Calliope visited the limited perches.
A large/huge hummingbird was a surprise. She only visited once for about 20 seconds. I noticed greenish, streaked or barred underparts. Looked more like a Magnificent Hummingbird as I would expect grayish, unstreaked underparts if it had been a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird.
I could only find 2 of the young Barrow's Goldeneyes. Hopefully the others were in the weeds at the southeast corner of Echo Lake (and not the victims of turtles or fish).
Our limited time was over and we headed back to Denver. I passed through the DIA Owl Loop on the way home. Burrowing Owls as usual, were at the prairie dog town at 3.4 miles east of Tower Road and 96th Avenue.
No comments:
Post a Comment