Tamarack Ranch Wildlife Area

January 5, 2018

Richard Stevens:

Terry and I got up four hours before sunrise and heard an Eastern Screech-Owl at Roger Danka's ranch east of Julesburg.

We relocated two Eastern Screech-Owls at Tamarack Ranch Wildlife Area (Logan) before sunrise.  It was colder today with temperatures only reaching 45 degrees.  Thankfully, anemometer readings stayed between 4-8 mph all day.

Highlights at Tamarack Ranch Wildlife Area included: five Red-bellied Woodpeckers, one Long-eared Owl, seven Eastern Bluebirds, two Northern Cardinals, two Field Sparrows, one Harris's Sparrow, and one White-throated Sparrow.  Best birds of the day were two Common Redpolls along Logan County Road 385.  Three or four American Goldfinches were around also.

We backtracked to Jumbo Reservoir (Logan/Sedgwick) found nothing uncommon.  Plenty of Snow Geese and Ross's Geese, we did not pick out a Greater White-fronted Goose.  Ducks appeared to be of the common variety.

We headed back to Denver soon after Noon.  A check of the previous Snowy Owl sightings along I76 near Iliff and Galien (Logan) did not find any today.  We also drove north of Fort Morgan (Morgan) without locating any Snowy Owls.