January 6, 2017
Richard Stevens:
After staying home during yesterday's snowstorm, I had to get out of the house. I met Terry Michaels on the west side of Denver and headed into the mountains.
Along the way, I stopped at Box Elder Creek where it crosses Weld County Road 4. No Rusty Blackbirds were just north of CR 4 where they were on 1/4. Noticing a bird quite a ways up the creek, I got out my scope. It was a male Rusty Blackbird. No additional birds flew up from the creek during my stay.
Terry & I drove up to Loveland Pass. It was a sunny day with little wind (unusual for the Pass). Unfortunately, we could not find any White-tailed Ptarmigan.
Then, we drove into Silverthorne. A quick detour to the southwestern Lake Dillon inlet found no Purple Sandpiper (had not been reported since 12/31).
A visit to a friend's home added some nice mountain species to our 2017 bird checklists. We observed three species of Rosy Finches, Mountain & Black-capped Chickadees, Pine Siskins, Downy & Hairy Woodpeckers, three species of Nuthatches, Evening and Pine Grosbeaks!
The highlight was an American Three-toed Woodpecker drumming a few houses away! Although, seeing three species of Rosy Finches is always a highlight!
We returned to Loveland Pass in the afternoon, again missing Ptarmigan at the usual locations. Then just as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, two White-tailed Ptarmigan flew down from the high western trail and landed fifteen feet from the wooden fence west of Highway 6!
It was a great ending to a superb birding day!
Richard Stevens:
After staying home during yesterday's snowstorm, I had to get out of the house. I met Terry Michaels on the west side of Denver and headed into the mountains.
Along the way, I stopped at Box Elder Creek where it crosses Weld County Road 4. No Rusty Blackbirds were just north of CR 4 where they were on 1/4. Noticing a bird quite a ways up the creek, I got out my scope. It was a male Rusty Blackbird. No additional birds flew up from the creek during my stay.
Terry & I drove up to Loveland Pass. It was a sunny day with little wind (unusual for the Pass). Unfortunately, we could not find any White-tailed Ptarmigan.
Then, we drove into Silverthorne. A quick detour to the southwestern Lake Dillon inlet found no Purple Sandpiper (had not been reported since 12/31).
A visit to a friend's home added some nice mountain species to our 2017 bird checklists. We observed three species of Rosy Finches, Mountain & Black-capped Chickadees, Pine Siskins, Downy & Hairy Woodpeckers, three species of Nuthatches, Evening and Pine Grosbeaks!
The highlight was an American Three-toed Woodpecker drumming a few houses away! Although, seeing three species of Rosy Finches is always a highlight!
We returned to Loveland Pass in the afternoon, again missing Ptarmigan at the usual locations. Then just as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, two White-tailed Ptarmigan flew down from the high western trail and landed fifteen feet from the wooden fence west of Highway 6!
It was a great ending to a superb birding day!
No comments:
Post a Comment