Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Another Search for Owls in the Mountains

October 13, 2013

Richard Stevens:

We missed owls yesterday and Michael Roots, Dean Tyler and I gave it another try.  Today I picked Reynolds Park (Jefferson).  About 30 minutes before sunrise, we hiked along the Songbird trail in search of Northern Pygmy-Owls; without success.

We turned up (south) the Oxen Draw Trail and then picked up the Eagle's View Trail.  A female American Three-toed Woodpecker was just north of the intersection of the two trails.  Higher up we found a Dusky Grouse at the top (near the clearing) of the Eagle's View Trail.

A second Three-toed Woodpecker was found as we dropped down the Eagle's View Trail to the Elkhorn Trail (woodpecker was about 300 yards south of the old service road).

Fortunately, I had several GPS waypoints on previous Northern Pygmy-Owl sightings.  Shortly after sunset, we relocated one of the Northern Pygmy-Owls along Sugar Creek Road.

We stopped at highway 67 and Rampart Range Road.  Regrettably, no Northern Saw-whet Owls were called to us tonight.

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