Saturday, May 11, 2013

A Trip Through Douglas and Arapahoe Counties

May 10, 2013

Richard Stevens:

We finally returned to Denver around noon and instead of resting, went out for supplies.  Of course, birding side tracked us and produced some interesting sightings.

We drove down to Castlewood Canyon State Park (Douglas) by way of Highway 83 to Lake Gulch Road and then north along Castlewood Canyon Road back to Franktown.

Two male Bobolink were found on the Winkler Ranch south of Castlewood Canyon State Park (Douglas).  While we scoped the ranch's hillsides for Bobolink, a male Wild Turkey gobbled to the west of the entrance.  A female came out of the woods and was the likely focus of his attention.

Eventually, another three males and a female were observed between Winkler Ranch and the State Park.

Both Mountain and Western Bluebirds were observed around the many bluebird boxes along Castlewood Canyon Road.  Unfortunately, we did not find the Eastern Bluebirds.

We stopped at Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe) to see if the Black-chinned Hummingbird(s) had returned (none was found).

As I drove by the Cottonwood Creek Wetlands Pond, several godwits flew to the north end of the pond.  Rebecca and I got out our scopes and circled the wet field (flooded over the cement bike trail).  The Marbled Godwit count was 31.

We noticed many White-faced Ibis feeding in the sparse woods north of the flooded field and walked over for closer inspection.  That was a good idea as I noticed the blue skin around the bill of an adult Glossy Ibis!  Rebecca found what we thought might be a second Glossy Ibis.  Regrettably, we did not have as good a look at the second bird.

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