Monday, November 20, 2017

Douglas County Birding

November 20, 2017

Richard Stevens:

Another great fall day in Colorado.  Temperatures reached 68 degrees.  Winds in the morning and late afternoon were only 4-5 mph.  Shortly after noon, gusts briefly  reached 41 mph.

Rebecca and I headed south today to visit an ill friend in Franktown.  A stop at the twenty-mile pond at Bar CCC Park found the Brant swimming around with several hundred White-cheeked Geese.

After brunch with our friend, we walked the Creekside Trail at Castlewood Canyon (Douglas).  No Winter Wrens, our target bird, was found.  We did eventually find a Canyon Wren, heard long before sighting it.

Two species of nuthatches (White-breasted, Red-breasted), many Dark-eyed Juncos, a pair of Mountain Bluebirds, a Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk were also encountered.

Best birds were three male and a female Red Crossbills.  For those with copies of February 2015 "Colorado Field Notes", it has a great treatment of the Red Crossbill complex.  Included are vocalization and sonograms the Various Red Crossbill types. 

White-winged Crossbills are also included.  Plans are to revisit the treatment in December 2017 "Colorado Field Notes".

We stopped at Twenty mile Pond on the drive home.  This time the Brant was close to shore.  After getting about 40 photos, the geese flew north for "dinner".

The flock was relocated at the Water Treatment Plant located on the north side of Railbender Park (Douglas).  I took a few additional photos and headed for home.

We parked along 88th avenue, east of Tower Road about 30 minutes before sunset.  The location offers nice 360-degree views of the area.  No Short-eared Owls appeared this evening.

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