Friday, April 15, 2016

Douglas & Arapahoe County Birding

April 13, 2016

Terry Michaels and I went out in the afternoon to search a couple of bird reports.  Winds were calm most of the afternoon; at 5:00 pm that changed with 15 mph readings.

We hiked the Cherry Creek Trail at Walker Pit south to the end of the trail (1.2 miles).  I had always wanted to bike from Cherry Creek State Park to Castlewood Canyon State Park.  As it turns out, the bike path does not go all the way.  At the Walker Pit, I would have to leave the bike path and detour over to Castlewood Canyon Road.

The Eastern Phoebe reported yesterday by Hugh Kingery was not found.  We did see a Gray Catbird near the Highway 86 bridge.  Three male and a female Western Bluebirds were another 0.1 miles south.

On the walk to the Hwy 86 bridge we ran into a Spotted Towhee and the pair of Red-tailed Hawks using the Great Horned Owl nest in the cottonwoods near the path.

Along the western side of Castlewood Canyon State Park (Douglas), we walked below the old farmhouse in search of Ovenbirds.  No Ovenbirds was found; another House Wren was seen.  Several Turkey Vultures flew overhead.

We scoped Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe) looking for Tuesday's Red-throated Loon; it was not found.  A Common Loon and four Bonaparte's Gulls were found.

A second alternate plumage Common Loon swam off the southern end of the dam at Aurora Reservoir.  No uncommon gulls or waterfowl were picked out of the many swimming in the middle of the lake.

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