June 23, 2019
Richard Stevens:
What a great summer day with high temperature of 65 degrees. Winds were a little strong at 11-12 mph with gusts to 28 mph.
Rebecca Kosten and I set out toward Castlewood Canyon State Park (Douglas) early this morning. No Northern Saw-whet Owls responded to our recordings played an hour before sunrise. It may have been too late in the morning; however, in my experience finding owls after a huge thunderstorm like last night is seldom successful.
We detoured over to the Walker Gravel Pond where the Common Loon found by Hugh Kingery yesterday was still there. Then we walked down to Cherry Creek and found the Eastern Phoebe still feeding bird(s) south of the Highway 86 bridge.
After an early lunch, we continued west to Waterton Canyon (Jefferson). The previously reported Black Phoebe was not found. We did see an American Redstart along the South Platte River.
We walked up (west) Waterton Canyon searching of phoebes and such. No phoebes were found; however, we did see Lazuli Buntings, Spotted Towhees, Yellow-breasted Chats and Song Sparrows.
Rebecca rested while I walked downstream along the west side of the Platte River at the Audubon Center trails. Yellow-billed Cuckoos have spent the summer on the east side of the Platte River in the past. Unfortunately, there was no way to cross the Platte. Looking for them through the cottonwoods from the west side was not productive.
Our birding day ended at Cherry Creek Reservoir (Arapahoe). We walked the trail along Cherry Creek at Lake View Drive for about an hour. The Yellow-billed Cuckoo was not relocated.
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