Saturday, June 25, 2016

Mountain Birding in Clear Creek & Jefferson Counties

June 23, 2016

Richard Stevens:

Kat McGuire and I did some mountain birding today.  Temperatures were warm even above Idaho Springs.

One Barrow's Goldeneye was swimming on Echo Lake (Clear Creek County) as we passed by.  In recent years, I had found a female on a nest high in the evergreen trees.  We did not look today.

A walk to the northeastern corner of Summit Lake found three Brown-capped Rosy Finches circling overhead.  Twice they lit on the rocky hillside.

We walked around the field east of the Summit Lake parking area for just over an hour before finding a White-tailed Ptarmigan.  The male bird was approximately 400 yards east of the main road.

We circled the road through the Campgrounds without finding an American Three-toed Woodpecker.  Then a short hike down the Mt Captain trail found a male drumming 20 yards south of the trail and 60 yards east of the Campgrounds.

A search for Dusky Grouse and Williamson's Sapsuckers at Genesee Mountain Park (Jefferson) was half successful.  A pair of Williamson's Sapsuckers was within 30 yards of the top of the park.  Another male Williamson's Sapsucker was just north of the group picnic pavilion.

Our birding day ended at Mt Falcon.  Again, we missed any Dusky Grouse.  A calling Northern Pygmy-Owl was a great consolation.  The bird was west of the overlook and south of the main trail.

Other birds included Red Crossbills, Mountain Bluebirds, three species of nuthatches and Pine Siskins.

No comments: