A Birding Day in Boulder County

June 11, 2018

Richard Stevens:

I decided to spend the day in Boulder County.  Temperatures only reached 82 degrees; winds were 6-7 mph with gusts to 16 mph.

My first stop was the Boulder Open Space Office on Cherryvale Road.  One male Bobolink called along the entrance road.

Walden Ponds was the hotspot of the day.  The juvenile and adult Little Blue Herons were on a sand spit in Cottonwood Marsh.  The Tricolored Heron was nowhere to be seen. Therefore, I walked around the island at Toves Pond (just east of Cottonwood Marsh).  The Tricolored Heron and a Great Blue Heron were on the northeast shore of the northern island!

Later I bushwhacked along Boulder Creek at 75th Street and relocated one of the previously reported Eastern Phoebes.  Boulder Creek was rather high, probably from snowmelt, walking east from 75th street was not possible.

At Pella Crossing Park near Hygiene, two male Bobolinks sang from grasses east of Marshall Pond.  While I was recording the Bobolink, I notice a small bird fly into the cottonwoods south of Sunshine Pond.  It turned out to be a Red-eyed Vireo.

Next, I drove Crane Hollow Road (just south of Pella Crossing Park).  An Osprey was perched over the pond along a canal south of St. Vrain Creek.  Two Eastern Phoebes were observed catching bugs below the eastern side of Crane Hollow Bridge over St. Vrain Creek.  While photographing the two Eastern Phoebes I noticed a third Eastern Phoebe farther downstream.  It was east of the fallen tree lying diagonal across the creek.

Misses: included the Burrowing Owl as I passed Lookout Road on the way to Pella Crossing.  The previously reported Northern Cardinal and Indigo Bunting pair at Hawthorne Gulch (my search for them being quite brief).

I then headed to Rocky Mountain National Park (Larimer) for some owling.  Conditions at Cow Creek north of Estes Park were excellent.  Winds were calm.  A Northern Pygmy-Owl was heard just west of the wooden steps along the trail (about 0.7 miles from the trailhead). 

I crossed Cow Creek, heading south where previous trips encountered Aspen trees.  A Flammulated Owl responded to my recordings at an Aspen Grove.

Then I drove up Trail Ridge Road to Hidden Valley Road.  A Boreal Owl called from the northern end (far end).