Back from it!

Anyone else have fun this weekend? I did! Checking out a part of Colorado that I had not previously visited was just the thing to get me firing on all cylinders and infect me with full blown spring fever. Happy Presidents' Day to all, and for those not at work enjoy. I'll have more on the trip shortly.

Count Day!

"Hurry up and count me, so I can get back to suet!"

As my past entries on the subject indicate, the Christmas Bird Count has been a special event for me. From a first time exposure to the great people that one can meet while birding, to unexpected encounters with new species, and revelations about new ways to expand identification skills the CBC has always been a highlight of my birding year. This year presented a new challenge, to organize and lead a territory count. While I had my hesitations, I was flattered to be asked to do so by the count organizer. My concern was that I would be taking an opportunity from a more experienced birder, but the need remained and I was happy to give it a shot.

Two of three Coyotes, calculating their chances of success with a group of Mule Deer just after sunrise.

I began by mapping out what I thought the best locations in the territory would be, and then driving around to see what did and did not meet expectations. As I guessed, some of the peripheral areas were our most productive. My guess that some of the creek corridors running through the neighborhoods would also be good turned out to be completely wrong. A large area of trails on University of Colorado pasture/prairie restoration land also ended up being a major bust. That area did generate a Northern Harrier and juvenile Bald Eagle, but failed to produce species our team hoped to find, like Western Meadowlark or Ring-necked Pheasant; all at the cost of over an hour and several miles of extra walking. I believe birders would still be well advised to look to that area on future counts, but may look for ways to check it and similar areas more quickly. Leaving a vehicle at both ends of that trail is a refinement I would consider for future years. Multiple vehicles would have allowed for an end to end search, but without the team having to make a full loop in an area that we quickly determined was under productive.

American Kestrel - hover-hunting in the breeze.

In a bit of a surprise for me, our best habitat turned out to be the last houses on the edge of the open space just before the foothills. I knew they were going to be good, but our species counts from trails running just beyond the developments and the streets on the opposite side of those homes, gave us the greatest species diversity. That transition zone netted us three species of jay, two woodpeckers, both chickadees, White-breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creepers and Townsend's Solitaires, along with two different raptors and many other more common species. During the count compilation, those teams reporting Western Scrub-Jays all found that the species turned up at the perimeter of developments, just as they approached the lower edges of ponderosa pine forest. Not Earth shattering, but a cool confirmation and as I look back at my previous sightings, (Red Rocks Park and Roxborough State Park), one that holds true throughout the Denver area.

Western Scrub-Jay - a species we found in a very specific habitat belt.

Once again my expectations were completely blown out of the water by the people who volunteer for the Christmas Bird Counts. I had three great volunteers, each an accomplished birder and all three were people who had a good time just getting to know the others while being out seeing some cool birds. Each of us spotted species that made for 'good' adds to our day list, and I think as a group we all made one another stronger with our varied backgrounds and skills.

Townsend's Solitaire - a welcome sight on each of my Boulder CBCs to date.

We had a section that was as advertised, it produced a good list of fairly common birds. There were some birds that we were surprised we did not run across during the day. White-crowned Sparrows, Mourning Doves, and Belted Kingfishers were all misses for our count, and despite our best efforts we could not produce a roosting owl. It is amazing to me that even when spending an entire day dedicated to watching for birds, some of the more common species won't turn up.

Brown Creeper - an elusive bird that gave us good looks, and was a lifer for at least one member of our team.

When I look back on this count I hope the lesson I will remember is that identification skill isn't a prerequisite to bringing others together for good birding. Having been taught and lead by so many great birders in the past couple of years I guess I just hadn't seen what happens when a bunch of willing folks get together and bird. It turns out that if you pick a meeting place and have a general idea of where you want to go the rest will take care of itself. In our case one participant even lived in our count area, and invited the three strangers to her home at six in the morning for breakfast - how often does that happen these days?

I hope that all the members of the Bear Creek team had as good a day as I did. Thank you very much to each of them, Bill Schmoker the count compiler, Bill Kaempfer who hosted the compilation potluck that evening, and to all the other birders who participated. To all of them and for anyone reading this...

...may your Holidays be filled with family and friends, food and fun, fur and feathers, and if your location favors it at least a bit of frost!


Bear Creek Territory 2010 Total: 30
Boulder CBC 2010 Total: 114, (A count day record by 5 species) plus 1 'free-flying presumed escapee' and 2 additional count week birds so far.

Brown Creeper

Very quiet end to November, birdwise. Strong winds and chilly temps made for some lunchtime walks where I was absolutely skunked. Today the wind dropped off and the sun was shining, which made for a great afternoon walk. Still the birds that I did see weren't posing particularly well. This Brown Creeper was one of a pair working over a group of trees, and trying their hardest to remain out of sight of the guy with the camera. Hopefully the month has more mild days of birding in store.

Leftovers

On a great birding day like yesterday I usually return with a mind-boggling number of pictures. Some species get special attention, and the best of whatever I have taken of those get posted to help share what I have seen in the field. Then there are a great number that are simply saved away, either because they are poor even by my standards, or because they are of common species which have been getting a lot of play in recent posts. However, there was too much yesterday to just be represented by the Rusty Blackbird and American Dipper posts, so here is the best of the rest:

A well started, but incomplete, beaver tree.


If anyone has an idea why that cut pattern would appear I would appreciate an explanation. Those incomprehensible, yet always intriguing beavers - I didn't see them at all, but was amazed that there is an active pond and dam in such a developed area.

A Gadwall - subtle but deep patterns make this a duck whose colors you could lose yourself in for hours.

A Common Goldeneye was engaged in a courtship display. Sure to us it looks like the gargling mouthwash position, but to a female Common Goldeneye that is one 'wild and crazy guy"!

Here is another uncommon species in Colorado, but as shown in this space, one that can be found with some regularity. This is the more typical setting for seeing a Barrow's Goldeneye in Colorado - at a distance on a lake. The one hanging out on the South Platte in Denver over the winter spoiled me, and many others, with the continuous close-up views it offered.

Finally, as I was returning in the fading light I had a pair of Brown Creepers fly into the tree immediately ahead of me. I had to bump the ISO way up on my camera to deal with the low light, but at least that slowed this blur of a bird down a bit.

This last trip has me jumping for spring migration to heat up. As it will be my second, I am looking forward to seeing some familiar birds return, and hopefully being more prepared to spot new visitors as they move through out area. Good birding!

Doomed Dusting

Sunday morning dawned cold, with a fresh dusting of 4 inches of dry, light snow. It wasn't long for solid form though, as quickly as the clouds receded the sun made fast work of anything that had landed on pavement or solid exposed surfaces. The bit that landed on the rock formations above the South Mesa Trail complex outside Boulder sure was nice while it lasted.

As I crossed South Boulder Creek I heard what is fast becoming a familiar sound. It was coming from the area of a cavity where the flooded creek erodes the base of a large tree. The source is just left of dead center on the picture above. Here it is with a bit more contrast and a tighter crop.

Another Brown Creeper. It just goes to show that once your mind gets attuned to a specific set of stimuli you are more responsive to it. I still couldn't describe exactly what makes the Brown Creeper's higher pitched, slightly staccato chirp distinct, but I keyed in on it over the many calling Chickadees and the sound of the creek flowing below me. Here it is again, contrasting nicely against the lichen decorated boulder.

The creek, tree and rock themselves may make a nice study of the forces of nature in the future, but that will be another day. Instead here is another shot of our friend, this time after working up to the upper side of the twisted trunk.

...and such is the state of the human condition, that after several sightings in a week I am craving variety once again, so I may be off to the Ponderosa Pines in the foreground of the first picture next, in search of things that go hoot in the night!

Photographic Adjustments give me the Creepers

Yesterday at lunch I headed to one of my favorite walking sections along the Coal Creek Trail here in Louisville, Colorado. One of the highlights was watching four Red-tail Hawks circling up in the distance on a shared thermal. Then I got down to business as I heard and then watched two Brown Creepers working over a few tree trunks in the area.

I had carefully adjusted my camera settings to minimize noise, and hopefully to compensate for the bright sunlight angled towards my targeted Creepers, so I began to shoot. I even made a couple of minor tweaks to EV levels and ISO settings as the birds worked their way more directly into the path of the sun.

I got a chance to look at them on the monitor later, and found that these constantly moving little camouflage experts were moving a hair to fast for the camera's shutter speed, and as a result lost the clarity I had hoped for.

That is not to say that I am completely unhappy with the shots I got. Just finding this species is a treat, and this time I can say that I definitely recognized it by its voice first and then its movement. I can't claim that I knew the call was Brown Creeper, but I knew it was distinct and dialed in on the area from which it originated. It is nice to have these sightings in the winter and around a known location. If I can keep up the encounters it will really help for the more evergreen environments where they are common up at higher elevations.

As for the photography I'll just keep hammering away, please bear with me as I continue to break down the comfort zone cushion.

Improving Temps and Targets

Today's lunch excursion was met with high hopes, a cleaned lens, cleared memory card, and many fewer layers. Of course after cleaning the sensor my camera was once again left in 'artsy' mode - aka black and white. Oh well, appreciate the contrast and highlights of the White-breasted Nuthatch!

I got my gear sorted out, and started getting a few captures of Chickadees against the clear blue sky, when I spotted something moving up high in the tree. Could you see it in the picture above?

Here is a tighter crop, a Brown Creeper! One of my better shots of these well camouflaged and always moving acrobats. While this one taught me something about looking for these trunk dwellers at the treetop level I was not surprised to see it hang inverted several times as it spiraled the branch it was on barber pole style. It was also so good as to give me one solid call to reinforce its distinct style as I watched it. All the better as I had heard several on the CBC, but had not gotten more than a passing look that time.

Of course Chickadees were everywhere, and this one happened to catch the light as well as any.

On the way back I followed some old Nordic ski tracks and was rewarded with a good flock of Juncos, most that I saw were Pink-sided, and some House Finches. They were returning to the trees I passed in the open space between visits to a local house with well stocked feeders.

1/9 Barr Lake State Park

On my Friday off I spent my day well at Barr Lake State Park. The weather ranged from mediocre to annoying, but even so the park seems to have a great deal of potential. For anyone who has already visited this site, or is familiar with it that is a bit of a no-brainer. As the home of the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory and a bird banding site it is one of Colorado's birding hot-spots. Thanks to the wind and overcast skies I had the place effectively to myself.
During my visit I hiked two miles out and back in both directions along the perimeter trail from the Nature Center.

My first hike took me north to the boat launch point. I had good views of Shovelers and Northern Pintails, and enjoyed watching Bald Eagles out fishing on the ice. On my return from the boat launch I had a great up close Downie Woodpecker who was willing to stay close while I snapped his picture a bunch of times.

I also got my first shots of a Brown Creeper.

The second out and back took me south into the wildlife preserve half of the lake. One of the highlights was walking out to the Gazebo under and through a cloud of 1700-2000 Red-winged Blackbirds.

I walked until I had gotten just past the Bald Eagle rookery. It was nice to be able to watch them back in the trees perching over a secluded pond or inlet. On the return trip I was treated to several Bald Eagle flyovers, and watched a Black-capped Chickadee as he hung inverted while working over a branch.

All in all it was a great day at the park. I am really hoping for a nice sunny day so I can get back to taking bright pictures again.

Update: Saw that this is a Song Sparrow, 7/17/2009

2009 Count: 46

Lifetime: 84