Thursday, January 2, 2014

New Years Day, Start of a New Bird List!

January 1, 2014

Richard Stevens:

A brand new year and new year bird list, always a great reason to get up early and bird throughout the day!

I drove over to Cameron Pass (Jackson County) just before midnight.  At 12:02 am, my first bird of 2014 was a Boreal Owl sighting.  A quick look with my spotlight and I will not put them through that until next year.  Hearing them is always a pleasure; it is not necessary to see them each trip.

We returned to Denver after seeing 30+ Rosy Finches at the Colorado State Forest Visitor's Center and another 800+ at a friend's nearby ranch!  Traffic after the holidays is ridiculous along I70 and we rushed back well before noon.

On the trip home, we took a detour to Chatfield Reservoir (Jefferson/Douglas).  Unfortunately, a two hour search did not turn up the Brant that has been around for several weeks.  Later I heard that is was found at Campgrounds D (an area that I had searched at least three times).

Nearby South Platte Park Reservoir was generous.  It only took five minutes to find the three Long-tailed Ducks (in Arapahoe County, swimming toward Jefferson County).  All three appeared in my scope at one time.

Down the road, seven male and a couple of female Greater Scaups were on Eaglerock Lake (another five minute stop)!

I had to make one last stop on the way home.  A quick hike down the South Platte River bike trail at 88th avenue and Colorado and I found the pair of Barrow's Goldeneyes just south of the green/white tower.

No Short-eared Owls were found this evening as we drove through the DIA Owl Loop (Adams).  Surely, we will see them on a future trip.  It was a great start to our 2014 Year List!

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