Pre-trip Catchup

Before I head out for feathered adventure this afternoon I wanted to catch up some pictures from a week ago. Last Thursday I stopped by the Stearn's Lake area on my way home from work. It was overcast and drizzly as the storm that would eventually hammer the Denver metro area with heavy wet snow was just arriving. Sure enough as soon as I got out of my car the rain really started coming down. The wind was enough to make sure that my umbrella had little effect. Still the shorebirds and ducks didn't mind and were out doing their thing on the banks. The American Avocet (above) was fairly close to my side of the larger Stearn's lake proper.

Just across the road I peeked at a small irrigation or farmer's pond which happens to fall in Broomfield county. I was fortunate to get a closer look at the Solitary Sandpiper I had seen previously.

I also had this Wilson's Snipe nearly at my feet. Unfortunately for the exposure we were both positioned below a large cottonwood, capturing a bit more of the feel of the weather than I would have hoped. Then again it was a new species for my list so I'll take it in any conditions.

So now my submissions to Ebird are up to date, all of my camera memory cards have been uploaded and reformatted and I have a couple of fresh pics posted to tide the blog over until Friday at the earliest.

My car is loaded and ready and in a few short hours I will be on the road. The only bit of bad news so far is that I could not get a blind reservation at the Valentine Wildlife Refuge for Saturday morning, but I will be camping the next two nights and have an alarm set for 4:00, so maybe I will get extremely lucky.

Even if I don't I know the next few days are going to be a whirlwind, and hopefully my notes and pics will give me a bunch of ID challenges for the days and weeks to come.

Not only will the birding be great, but the Lyrid Meteor shower peaked this morning and will continue in the early hours tomorrow, and I should get some good history exposure as well, (I have a degree in American History).

Take care everyone, and as always please feel free to make any appropriate corrections on my species identifications. Seriously, shorebirds are a whole new world for me. I will always do my best, but would rather learn from my mistakes than continue on in ignorance.

2009 Count: 84

Lifetime: 108