November 28, 2018
Richard Stevens:
A friend needed a ride from Boulder to DIA Airport. In order to miss traffic, I headed up to Boulder at 4:00 am. High temperature would reach 61 degrees. Winds were outrageous at 22-23 mph with gusts to 32 mph.
I hiked up the Mesa South Trail to Shadow Mountain trail anyway (Boulder County). Target birds were Northern Saw-whet and Flammulated Owls. Neither was found. The late date for Flammulated Owls in the area is 10/19. Northern Saw-whet Owls have been found in November.
I picked up Steve; he mentioned seeing a Bohemian Waxwing in a flock of 24+ Cedar Waxwings yesterday. We managed to find 8 Cedar Waxwings west of Airport Road near Longmont. While the waxwing flock had split, the Bohemian Waxwing was in today's flock!
We were not far from the Blackburnian Warbler & Blackpoll Warbler spot at Dry Creek and had time to search for them. Unfortunately, neither was found.
After dropping Steve off at DIA, I drove over to Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe). A relative is staying at the rehab place not far from there; so I was taking care of two birds etc as they say.
I scoped Cherry Creek Reservoir an hour before the setting sun reached the mountains. Light was terrible looking southwest from the Smoky Hill picnic area vantage point. About eight, Bonaparte's Gulls swam not far off shore. No Long-tailed Ducks could be picked out of the hundreds of gulls.
A short walk to the pond northwest of the swim beach found the male and female Rusty Blackbirds walking along the north shore. I put a photo of them on the Colorado Birding Society's website, "recent witness photos" link.
coloradobirdingsociety.net
The sun went behind clouds and I returned to the swim beach. Light was better and I observed a raft of 60+ Common Goldeneyes swimming below the dam. The two Long-tailed Ducks while not together were among the Common Goldeneyes.
No swans flew in, surprisingly few grebes were around. One male Red-breasted Merganser was another highlight.
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