Sunday, December 2, 2018

Guanella Pass

November 29, 2018

High temperature today was 26 degrees.  Winds were 16-18 mph with gusts to 28 mph on Guanella Pass.  The strenuous snowshoe trip heated me up and compensated for the cold temperatures.

Richard Stevens:

I headed into the mountains today, specifically Guanella Pass (Park and Clear Creek Counties).  The exhausting 2.0-mile (one-way) snowshoe trip to the Summit was rewarded with a sighting of nineteen White-tailed Ptarmigan.  The Ptarmigan were below the Rosalie Trail and just east of the 603 Trail.

On my trip back toward Grant (now dark), a Northern Pygmy-Owl responded to a recording at Geneva Campgrounds.  I did not put out my "owl listening stations" because the temperature was in the 20s.

Most of the night was spent snowshoeing up and down Guanella Pass Road searching for owls.  

While playing a recording at Whiteside Campgrounds, I noticed a shadow fly to a nearby pine.  A brief spotlight on the bird revealed a young Northern Saw-whet Owl.

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