Corner of Colorado

My trip to Baca County in Colorado over a week ago was a great chance to go exploring and, see what I could see. As the following post will show - it wasn't all about the birds. Frankly, having camped in a canyon trailhead I missed much of the good early morning light for photos. As I explored the back roads of Comanche National Grassland I did get to watch this perched Loggerhead Shrike from a distance. I also added one lifer for the trip - the Chihuahuan Raven. I didn't get a great shot of the white feathers on its neck - or even close enough for a nasal bristle comparison, but their voices were very distinctive as they flew about.


The Ravens were paired up for the most part - and I rarely had to wait long for a twosome to come overhead. I also saw good numbers of Ferruginous Hawks. This one allowed me a passable shot - but broken clouds, constantly changing light and wind - not to mention lack of practice kept any shots from being spectacular.


After hitting many of the Canyons along the Colorado Oklahoma border I decided to do some adventuring and check out a corner of Colorado - that is only accessible from other states. I dropped into Oklahoma, and quickly found that the maps I had loaded on my iPad didn't differentiate between the private and public roads. So after many failed attempts I decided to drop back out to the highway, and attempt my invasion of extreme SE Colorado from Kansas. That did work, and I am able to confirm for you readers that the couple of roads in that corner of the state do not get anywhere close to the Cimarron River (which is what cuts off this chunk of the state from the roads in the rest of Colorado). I can, however, say I have been to a place that most others will not visit.


The area was short on birds, people, and any indication of when a road stopped being a road. But for all that it was beautiful in a desolate solitude kind of way.


Rolled hay and some of the power lines were the few indications that this area had changed since the dust bowl. That, in a way, is just what drives me to get to new places. I have a connection to a place that few, other than those who live there, get to make. I can't say when I will make it back - but feel blessed to have so many unique opportunities to explore different worlds, all in my backyard!


I watched the Sun drop below the horizon in that tiny forgotten corner of Colorado, it had been a full day - and I opted for a drive to Lamar - and a hotel, for my second night before some more birding and a drive back home on Sunday.

Ridin' at the Refuge

Saturday's mountain snow reached the plains by the overnight hours Saturday, and I awoke to a fresh dusting of four or so inches. After a quick shovel of the drive I headed off to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge. It's been a while, so I am sorry if you have read my posts on this great location in the past. For anyone who has recently found this blog, or is not familiar with the Arsenal I strongly recommend it. This former farming community, turned weapons plant, turned petrochemical factory, turned Superfund site is quickly becoming a unique treasure of the National Wildlife Refuge system. As the Denver area expands it is becoming an increasingly surrounded oasis of prairie in the midst of human habitation. This spring the Refuge will see the grand opening of its new Visitor Center, and as each year passes the area continues to evolve to a more wild state.

I hadn't been out to the refuge since last summer/fall, and the fresh snow made it seem like an appealing destination. My drive in followed only a single set of tire tracks, and a Coyote welcomed me back as he sat near the side of the road. I approached the Visitor Center, and decided to check out the feeder station from my truck. Before I had even gotten started I had Western Meadowlark, Chickadee, Red-winged Blackbird, Northern Flickers, Black-billed Magpies, Song Sparrow, and scores of Dark-eyed Juncos. Of the Juncos, the White-winged is the race that I have found I see the least frequently.


So, I was happy to find one perching for me. Then, it like the others was drawn to the spilled seed on the snow.


I dropped into the Visitor Center to sign in, and found that the weekend tour was set to leave in fifteen minutes, and with the snow it was likely to be a small group. I decided to ride along. It had been just about a year since the last time I had been over to 'raptor row' or the Bison enclosure and I had hopes of seeing the light and dark Ferruginous Hawks again. (For those who have not been, the trailed area that is open to the public in the refuge is relatively small. The focus is on the animals, and they are able to live their lives more naturally with large areas where humans just don't go. Regular tours take visitors on a shuttle buss to see areas that they are not allowed to visit on foot.) While I had a few minutes to wait I wandered around what had been the Officer's Club (now the Visitor Center) to check some of the plantings and fresh tracks in the snow. Not many birds in the trees, so I completed my walk back at the feeders. Feeding there among the crowd was a first-year Harris's Sparrow.


Suh-weet! I have seen a handful of these largish sparrows, but all of them have been re-finds, where I went in with the hopes of locating a bird I knew had been in the area recently. This was the first that I had just picked out of a crowd - pretty cool.


The top of its head and throat will turn black in adult breeding plumage, and will merge with the necklace patch it has right now to form a backwards black hood. Here is a post that shows an adult bird closer to breeding plumage - note that it is a Harris's Sparrow, not a Harris Sparrow, it is possible to learn a few things over a couple of years. From the birds I have seen, Colorado mostly gets first or second year birds that have gotten a bit off course for winter. Typically this species overwinters just to the south-east, becoming more common into the eastern plains of Colorado.


With a great add to my list, to go along with White-crowned Sparrow, American Goldfinch, and Hairy Woodpecker, I was ready for a tour and some hawks! The group grew to seven, a ten year old boy and his dad, a couple of whom the wife had visited the refuge as a Girl Scout. "Back before they cleaned it up!" She explained to the boy, which was why she still "glows at night" Wink-Wink. There were also another pair of photographers to round out our crew. The stars of our trip yesterday were the Bald Eagles. Even a jaded birder like myself who was out for the hawks had to be impressed with the showing. My conservative count for the tour was a dozen, although I am guessing we had more but couldn't count some assuming they were the same ones that had just relocated as we drove. We had a nice mix of adults and juveniles of all ages. Many were perched in the trees, but we had a chance to see one on the snow over a kill, and others in flight.


My highlight was getting to see both the light and dark Ferruginous Hawks on the trip. The dark morph was just seen in passing, and I had no angle to get shots from the camera portholes on the bus. As seen below, the light-morph was much more accommodating. It appears that this light-morph is a recent addition to the area, last year's birds showed dark irides, a characteristic adults have but younger birds do not.


To close, I am guessing that this will be the highlight bird for everyone on the trip who wasn't floored by an eye-level Ferrug or a feeding Harris's Sparrow....


...the just above eye level Bald Eagle. This bird was 10-15 yards from the shuttle bus, and just sat as we stopped and then slowly rolled past. Beautiful, and a great reminder of just how large these birds are. Our tour did get to see a handful of Bison, although they were distant and fairly well hidden in the downslope area of their range. By the time the bus got back I needed to be heading out, but I didn't regret taking the ride. I did notice someone birding from a vehicle at the feeders, and walked over to say hello and ask about the Harris's Sparrow. The man said he hadn't seen one himself that day but that there had been two around, a first and second year. Impressive little feeding station they have going there.

If you are in the area and remotely interested in wildlife do check this location out. The tour ride is a great experience for anyone interested in wildlife or history, regardless of your knowledge level. The ride is really great for kids, but parents be warned that it can run almost two hours. Be aware that the refuge isn't a park. It is a wildlife refuge, and there are a handful of differences for the visitor to be aware of - so check out the site or give them a call during visiting hours.

I can't wait to get back for a hiking day, although at the >95% of the water is frozen, so waterfowl are very limited. On the flip side this normally quiet site is in its off season, so you will have an even more intimate experience during the coming weeks than you will once migration heats up.

2011 Count: 64
Lifetime: 252

Beating Traffic

I left work a bit late yesterday, and rolled the dice hoping the traffic on Highway 36 from Louisville to Broomfield would have released. Oops, seeing nothing but taillights ahead I ducked off the turnpike and headed for the dead-end road in western Broomfield to see if any birds were about as daylight faded and the traffic cleared.


Just as I turned onto the quiet road I was buzzed by a large white raptor. It cruised low along the ground and stopped on the small hill a couple hundred yards away and directly in line with the setting sun.
Earlier in the day area birder Paula had likely ID'd a large light bird as a possible Ferruginous Hawk in Louisville, but hadn't gotten 100% confirmation. These shots, while bad, do confirm that a large, light morph Ferruginous Hawk was in the area yesterday.



Was it the same bird? We'll never know for certain, but whether there were one or two in the area yesterday they are certainly fun to see. Hopefully they'll hang around long enough to offer a few better pictures in the days or weeks to come.

A Few Sights from the Plains

Western Meadowlark

My good fortune with the Scaled Quail on Friday morning exhausted my luck for seeing new life birds, but the next few hours spent driving and hiking the back-roads of Lincoln County weren't a waste.

Great Horned Owl on nest

In Lincoln County the Great Horned Owls build their nests directly over the roadways. Between that and no traffic jams who wouldn't love driving out here?

Wood Duck

The roadside ditches are graced by colorful waterfowl, but if a vehicle stops they aren't going to hang around for long.

Dark-Morph Ferruginous Hawk

The drab landscape is broken by the patterns of washes and the flights of aerial hunters.

Vesper Sparrow

In this setting the unremarkable buff, tan and brown patterns of the sparrows make perfect sense. From above they are just a piece of the prairie carpet.

Swainson's Hawk

If something stands out; it will likely be on the menu for something else.

Pronghorn

Even in a harsh environment there are still signs of levity, such as this Pronghorn making a turn before reaching a Horned Lark. After all, this is the land "where the deer and the antelope play".

Rocky Mountain Arsenal Raptors

Every DFO birding trip I have attended has been taught me something, and yesterday's trip to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge was no exception.

The highlight of this trip came early, in the form of Ferruginous Hawks. The more common 'light' form is pictured above. That individual had apparently had a messy breakfast before we arrived. As is often the case though, a well fed hawk is a content hawk, and this one remained perched as our 10 person group got good looks from fairly close range. Just down the road we had another Ferruginous, this one was the first of the dark variety that I had seen.

That one did fly more quickly, giving me a great view through my bins, showing its white tail and wrists on the upper wing, and the light crescent underneath that forms between the Ferruginous' telltale wrist comma, and the dark leading edge of the under-wing present in this variety. Good looks on both, and chances to become familiar with identification points that I knew would come in handy in the future. Little did I know that I would get the chance later on that same trip.

This bird is a juvenile, light, Ferruginous Hawk. One other birder spotted it on distant branch, but its perch was obscured by branches, and we ended up walking a good distance around the tree to get an unobstructed view. We had eliminated immature Bald Eagle and Red-tail Hawk fairly quickly, but were trying to determine if this could maybe be a Rough-legged Hawk - (which would have completed our area buteo trifecta for the day). The light coloring of the head was what was throwing us off, and we couldn't get a look at the feet, or discern the line of the gape as we approached to make an ID. In the picture the gape is visible, but in the field it was not. The bird decided it had had enough of the people walking a semicircle around it, and flew showing us its wrist commas and confirming its identity for us. It was a great chance to practice checking the field marks we had studied only a few hours before.

In addition to the Ferruginous Hawks there were a number of other raptors on display, including Red-tails, Northern Harriers, American Kestrels, Bald and the Golden Eagle above. The pictures of both the Golden and juvenile Ferruginous had to be brightened a bit after the fact, but show id points well. For the Golden, note that the bill progresses from black at the tip, to grey, and then a yellow base. This individual was close to a pair of Bald Eagles and allowed a chance to compare the two species. The Balds perch at an angle, where the Goldens tend to be more vertical and have a shape like that of a perched hawk.

Birding at the Arsenal is always productive, 27 square miles of refuge in an urban area guarantees that. An added bonus of a group trip like the one I joined yesterday was the potential to get outside the small area of public trails and see the Bison herd on the premises. Each time I visit I think too much time has passed since the last, and can't wait for the next. It is one of my favorite spots, and has a story that shows that even the most devastated environments can not only be repaired, but can become treasures for wildlife.

Pictures: 02/11/2009

Two pictures from last night's visit to the Ferruginous.



and



Such a change when viewing from a different angle.

2009 Count: 88

Lifetime: 58

Ferruginous Fortune

Yesterday was headed for a bust. The snow had left, and the temps were mild with a less significant breeze. I took my lunch at the Coal Creek Trail, where I had seen the Red-Tail circle overhead recently, and hoped that I would get a couple of good pics while I was out. What I saw were 14-16 Rock Pigeons and a lone Northern Flicker. I heard the constant howl of the wind that blew up out of nowhere and the roar from the highway. It was brutal. At one point I thought I heard a distinctive song from some bushes, but the wind tore it apart and made me unsure where it was coming from. Very frustrating.

Just before leaving I rechecked my CObirds email, and found to my surprise that a Ferruginous Hawk had been reported less than 6 blocks from my home! These hawks are one of my favorites. They are large, and essentially two-toned. From the back they are a mottled mix of rufous and brown, with a touch of white. From the front they are mostly white with a grayish head. Also, they are less common than Red-Tails or Eagles, as such I haven't seen one in the wild since I started keeping a list last October. The bust of a day had been averted!

I got to the reported location at about 5:20 last evening, and it was still light enough to see clearly, (finally). I knew what I was looking for, and even so I dismissed my first glance from a distance as a white plastic bag that had gotten caught up high in a cottonwood. One more careful look was all I needed to confirm that it was in fact the Ferruginous. Unfortunately when I got home I had to deal with some laptop issues, so those pictures are sitting unseen at home. I imagine that they will have suffered from the lower light, but hopefully I will have an update with the lighter front side of this great bird.

I knew that with an eastern exposure the Ferruginous would be well lit at sunrise, so I planned for a return visit on my way to work this morning. Spectacular, I love it when a day starts this well!

Buteo Regalis (royal hawk)

2009 Count: 58

Lifetime: 88