Friday, August 21, 2015

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Trek

August 20, 2015

Richard Stevens:

I spent most of the day at Rocky Mountain Arsenal (Adams County).  Target birds were the Long-billed Curlews and Blue Grosbeak reported earlier in the week.  Neither was found.

Thursday was a not a typical summer day in Colorado.  Temperatures hovered around 80s (nice and cool) and winds were calm.

Sage Thrashers were numerous today and just about everywhere I went.  Total count was fourteen.  Three were around the western entrance to the bison enclosure.  Another two were north at the end of B Street and 7th avenue.  Three were along the Locust Loop.  Two along 6th avenue south of Lower Derby Lake and four along the Rod and Gun Club trail.

Around trip, the Rod and Gun Club trail is four miles with the side trip to Havana Ponds.  One Townsend's Warbler (only warbler of the day) and a Rock Wren were near the R&G Club blind.  The pond here was surrounded by weeds, no shore for birds.

Killdeer were the only shorebirds around Havana Ponds.  A Prairie Falcon zoomed by once.

The Bluestem Loop (1.3 miles) and Southwest Loop (0.5 miles) did not add any uncommon birds to my trek.

Western Kingbirds were everywhere.  The conservative count was over 160 birds.  A Sora and Virginia Rail were along the southern edge of Lake Ladora.  While most of the swallows were Barn Swallows, two Northern Rough-winged Swallows flew around the northern end of the Lake.

I rested my legs before heading for home by hiking the Locust Loop Trail (relatively flat 0.8 mile hike).  Three Sage Thrashers and two Loggerhead Shrikes occupied the few trees along the loop.  The setting sun provided the highlight of the day with the silhouette of a Long-eared Owl in the New Mexico Locust at the beginning of the Loop.

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