August 16-17, 2017
Richard Stevens:
Crazy impromptu birding trip!!!
August 16, 2017
California Birder Robert Diaz and I went to Mt Evans to chase after a couple of his lifebirds. While cooler temperatures prevailed in the mountains, the day was still hot. Our day turned out to be quite crazy.
One Barrow's Goldeneye remained on Echo Lake (Clear Creek). A walk to the northwestern side of Summit Lake found three Brown-capped Rosy Finches flying overhead. They briefly landed on the moss-covered rocks; however mostly they continually circled overhead.
Finding White-tailed Ptarmigan was more challenging. We hiked the rocky hillside east of Summit Lake's parking area for over an hour and a half before Robert found a lone Ptarmigan. At least we had one for the day.
At the Echo Lake Campgrounds, we walked down past the Mt Captain trail where the distinctive drumming of an American Three-toed Woodpecker was heard. Eventually we put our binoculars on an adult male Three-toed Woodpecker.
We received a text message about two Little Gulls at Pueblo Reservoir. Having knocked around the idea of driving to Fremont County for a Spotted Owl search, off we went.
The juvenile Little Gulls were at the northwest corner of Pueblo Reservoir (Pueblo) when we arrived. A quick look and we continued to Phantom Canyon (Fremont).
After dark, we drove sixteen miles up Phantom Canyon. No owls were found this night. A friend had set me up with a radio receiver that tracks radio tagged birds. Regrettably, we acquired no hits tonight.
August 17
Having been up half the night in any case, we decided to drive to Gunnison. We both caught a couple of hours of sleep while trading off the driving.
Just before dawn, we drove south down Gunnison County Road 38. A female Gunnison Sage-Grouse and four young birds were discovered walking along CR 38, just north of CR 38a!
On the return to Canon City, we stopped at Temple Canyon Park (Fremont). The stop added Juniper Titmice, a Gray Flycatcher, Gray Vireo, Bushtits, Evening Grosbeaks, Willow Flycatcher and Cordilleran Flycatcher to our fantastic trip list.
A brief stop at Tunnel Drive added
a Rufous-crowned Sparrow to our trip list.
In the afternoon, we missed finding the Black and Eastern Phoebes along the Arkansas Riverwalk and headed back up Phantom Canyon. This night we enjoyed better fortune. A Spotted Owl was found up the Canyon. Later, our make-swift radio receiver picked up a signal. We never confirmed what caused this signal (possibly a second Spotted Owl?).
I had set up one of the "owl listening stations" along Phantom Canyon Road on the trip north up the Canyon. When we stopped to pick it up, a Northern Saw-whet Owl flew out of the Juniper trees.
Our final stop was Beaver Creek Wildlife Area. A Northern Pygmy-Owl responded briefly with a contact call.
Not a bad night of Owling!
1 comment:
Sounds like a fun couple of days! You mentioned that you recieved a text about the gulls - is there a hotline or something that you signed up for or was that from someone you knew? Just curious because i would like to sign up for something like that if that was the case.
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