Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Mountain Birding In Search of White-tailed Ptarmigan, American Three-toed Woodpeckers and Owls

July 1, 2013

Richard Stevens:

I took three Missouri birders up to Guanella Pass (Clear Creek County) this morning.  After wandering around for about two hours, we reached the top of the hill southeast of the upper parking lot.

An adult White-tailed Ptarmigan was walking around followed by two young birds!

Along our trek, we found at least one "Timberline" Brewer's Sparrow, many White-crowned Sparrows, a Wilson's Warbler and a flyover Prairie Falcon!

We stopped at Pine Valley Ranch Park (Jefferson) on the way back to Denver.  Unfortunately (I had a long wee and am quite tired), we had to climb all the way to Strawberry Jack & Parkview Trails before finding an American Three-toed Woodpecker.  The American Three-toed Woodpecker was about 200 yards southeast of the intersection of the two trails.

We continued for another 500 yards (trail is not flat and as I said, boy am I tired) looking for Northern Pygmy-Owls.  Regrettably, none was found.

A hike to the west end of the Narrow Gauge Trail also came up empty for any owls.

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