Snowshoeing in Search of Birds

A hardy crew of birders made like ducks on Saturday and artificially webbed their feet. I was glad to be one of them. A miserable, windy, snowy day on Friday had kept me indoors on my day off; but left a worthwhile reward in the form of a foot plus of fresh powder. Birders being birders, we were the early ones at the trailhead, and had a fairly fresh track to follow as we headed up to our destination, Left Hand Reservoir.
As is so often the case, the journey is often as meaningful as the destination, and Saturday was no exception. On our way up we reached our lofty species tally of "three". While the numbers weren't staggering - mostly Mountain Chickadees - it was a significant list for me. A bit to my own surprise I added Golden-crowned Kinglet to my life list. Here is my best picture of the little guy, (I was carrying my new camera body for the first time, and had yet to have read the manual or fired a test shot....):

A really cool part of that sighting was that I had been taught a bit about Kinglet vocalizations on my CBC trip in Boulder County last December. At the time a Brown Creeper was making noise and a fellow birder explained that the two had similar high, single note calls. Well, even before I had spotted the bird I had picked out its call from the group of Mountain Chickadees. I'm not saying that had I been solo and heard the call that I would have gotten the ID, but I was pleased to have the memory and live sound associated with one another.

Having gotten our fill of the Chickadees, the Kinglet, and a lone Red-breasted Nuthatch we headed on up, in pursuit of the White-tailed Ptarmigan. Up we went, to the lake and the treeline. There, we traded in the warmth of a climb through the shelter of the trees for a chilling wind rolling down off the continental divide and screaming across the expanse of the lake at us...

Feeling a bit like arctic explorers we made a good showing and gave a thorough check to the drifts building over the willow clumps where our target species makes its home. Unfortunately for us, the Ptarmigan wanted no part of the wind, or our group, and stayed burrowed while we were around. Despite not being what anyone would call birdy, the trip was so worth it for views like this of Longs Peak.

I really enjoyed what may end up being a last venture into challenging winter conditions for the season. There will hopefully be a few more visits to the ski resorts in Summit County, but those are just as likely to be sun soaked tailgating style affairs featuring light layers and sunscreen than a chance to watch fresh laid tracks filling in moments after they had been made. Fun memories and raw beauty, truly things earned from a good climb on a snowy morning. Soon enough those thoughts will have to do their best to keep us cool, now that spring has arrived! I can't think of a better way to welcome it than by returning to lower elevations, where clear skies and no wind made layers unnecessary and the snows from the day before but a passing memory.

2010 Count: 83

Lifetime: 209

RMBO Office at Barr Lake

Yesterday I had a bit of extra time in the afternoon and evening, so I headed out to see if I could track down a Rough-legged Hawk, a species that still eludes my official counting despite being fairly common on the plains. I am putting a bit more pressure on, as they will soon be gone for parts North, and I will have missed them for yet another season. True to form they are still slipping through my sights, but the juvenile Red-tailed Hawks are everywhere. I saw four juvenile individuals yesterday as I was driving and walking. The problem is that their light heads are all potential 'roughies' so I get excited and check each one closely. Not that I really mind, I really enjoy hawks, but I am chafing for a conclusive Rough-legged and until I get one those juvie Red-tails are just going to be trouble.
Instead of a Rough-tail I found this Great Horned Owl sitting on her nest. She was much more interested than the passing train than she was in me.

I also had a few good winter species, which could be on their way out of town soon. Perhaps they were just trying to remind me that despite the warm temps last evening and again today we could have ten inches of snow on the ground by this time tomorrow.

A few American Tree Sparrows were working through the brush at the edge of the dam and water. The dipping sun really set off their red heads. Apparently if you flap your wings just right in the fading sun they will glow!

These American Tree Sparrows will soon be replaced by the similar looking Chipping Sparrows. Chipping Sparrows have some dark outlines on their crest and a prominent white eye-line. They also lack the dark breast spot.

On my way out I was searching for some small owls to emerge from the windbreak hedges, they disappointed, but another driver was really excited to see a herd of deer cross the road. Funny how different things catch the interest of different people. I had a van circle back and forth multiple times gesturing me to the deer. To satisfy his sense of outdoor stewardship I did snap off a few low light pictures including the one above. I did get some good detail, so I guess some of my photographic skills are coming into practice. Now if only I had seen the Pheasant I was listening for at the time and gotten a shot of it as well.....Hmmmm.

Stay safe out there Coloradoans! Who knows how much snow will stick to 60 degree pavement, but odds are it will be slushy and slick underneath. Hopefully they have everything cleaned up for my Saturday Snowshoe birding trip - we should have good powder for it!

Slow Days - Longer Afternoons

I don't think Thursday is ever going to get here! Between waiting for all my deliveries to arrive, the NCAA Basketball Tournament to begin, and my pager rotation to be over I think the slowing of time is actually making an audible screech that can be heard across the universe. Well, maybe not, but I do feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. Fortunately when time slows down it allows more time for getting outside, and with the extension of evening daylight that let me get a nice five mile walk in along the South Platte River. I was back in the area looking for the Long-tailed Duck, but didn't have any luck in that pursuit.

The fantastic part about that area is that there is a great deal of water around. I scanned four reservoirs and a good stretch of the river, and there are at least three additional larger reservoirs in the area. While that is great for seeing a bunch of wildlife, it makes the prospects of finding any single individual a bit longer than I would normally like.

But, the day was beautiful, and I saw 30 fairly common species - including my first Western Grebes of the year. The Killdeer up top was in an abusive mood - screaming and yelling at me as I walked past. Can't really blame it though, the lake that it has had fenced off for its own use for four months just reopened yesterday for fishing. There were lots of Northern Shovelers, American Coot, and Green-Winged Teal groups along the actual river. The Green-winged Teal, (male immediately above and Female two up), were showing off their namesake wing patches.

A Pied-billed Grebe shared a stretch of the river with these Coot, all riding the current to better fishing grounds I guess. As with most beautiful weather these days are all falling at the beginning of the week. Friday, a day I have off, it is forecast to snow!

Sharp Yard-bird

Sorry, not a single picture from this weekend to post. Just some general housekeeping updates and a few notes on things I am anticipating in the immediate and not-to-distant future.

First though, I had an awesome new yard bird while I was talking to my family back in Minnesota yesterday afternoon. I was looking out the back door at our miserable weather and saying good bye when something fairly substantial flew up into the neighbors' tree. It had a banded accipiter tail - and what appeared to be a snack in its clutches. A Sharp-shinned Hawk, right in my backyard! Hopefully, it hangs around in the area, because by the time I had gotten back to the door with my camera the bird was out of sight.

So far, I have held to my goal and spent my on-call week as a 'project' week. Various indoor and outdoor tasks have been completed, with my last major overhanging task being to complete and submit my taxes. This is only relevant because it explains the lack of updates, and because I have completed my upgrade to Windows 7 and added Photoshop Elements 8. That should lead to some more post processing on pictures and improve the overall quality a bit. At least some photo specific before and after posts should be coming down the pike.

Also on the photog side of the equation; some new gear is on order, and should be arriving shortly. I will finally have a legit tri-pod rig that will allow for some more tele-converter shots and may induce some blind and hide shooting. I am sitting on pins and needles waiting for my new Canon body to arrive as well. In addition to all the improvements that have been made since my 30D came along, I am really excited at the prospect of having a dedicated body with a second lens at the ready. Oh, the possibilities!

Tomorrow night I got to my first of two sessions to be certified for hunter safety in the State of Colorado. I am not sure that I will be going hunting anytime soon, although I am certainly not opposed to hunting in general, (I grew up in Minnesota where each fall half the population seems to vanish to the north each weekend for deer or pheasant or duck season). I can understand the perspective of those who would prefer not to participate, but I have great respect for hunters, and what their pooled dollars and interest mean for the wild places that I like to visit. I also strongly believe that most hunters are prime candidates to be cross-over wildlife observers. Imagine the data that would quickly pile up, if even a quarter of the licensed hunters used a tool like eBird to record their observations from the time they spend in the field. While I may not make any difference by my actions, at least I will be getting a first hand look at both sides of the fence, and besides, shooting is fun. The Eagle Scout inside me always wants to be responsible in such matters, and hunter safety is smart whether or not I am carrying a gun in the field.
Birders, how many times have you been on a field trip and heard gunfire in the distance? I for one want to be aware of what those hunters may be shooting at, what game is in season, and the regulations to which the hunters should be abiding. I'll post a follow-up with some of my impressions when complete.

Finally, as migration arrives I have a few organized bird activities coming up. Next weekend I do a group high country snowshoe trip to see what niche species we can find. Then, in the later half of May I will be spending a few days up in the Estes Park area with my family. That is going to be fun on many different levels. The next weekend I am off to my first time CFO Convention based out of Ft. Collins. I am not sure which of all the field trips I am in on, but my requests offer a range of possibilities in northern Colorado and Wyoming. Here is a quick summary of the first choices I submitted for each day:

C2 - Cameron Pass and Jackson County 5:40 a.m.
Cameron Pass and Jackson County. Departing at 5:40 a.m., visiting Cameron, the visitor’s center, and other various locations in Jackson county. Targets include, mountain species, Bald and Golden Eagles, courting Western and Eared Grebes, nesting American White Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants, California and Franklin’s Gull, Forster’s Tern, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Snowy Egrets, Willets, Greater Sage-Grouse, and many waterfowl.
*C14 - Phantom Canyon Preserve 6:00 a.m.

Special Field Trip! Phantom Canyon Preserve. Departing at 6:00 a.m., this spectacular private holding of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) ordinarily has limited public access. TNC has graciously provided access to CFO conference attendees. Phantom Canyon is one of the largest roadless river canyons on the Front Range, and the scenery is spectacular. We will bird in riparian, montane grassland and shrubland habitats with great potential for breeders, and migrants. CARPOOLING WILL BE REQUIRED THROUGH THE NEIGHBOR’S LOCKED GATE. This trip will require moderate climb up out of the canyon- 600’ elevation gain in 8 tenths of a mile. Leaders will be TNC staff and Ted Floyd.

*C32 - Photo Trip 6:25 a.m.
Photo Trip. Departing at 6:25 a.m., Bill Schmoker will lead this trip visiting Hutton Lake NWR, and the Laramie area. This trip will provide time for those that want to take photographs. There will be opportunities for help with both DSLR and Digiscoping techniques.

I hope it will be a good combination of trips, and I have a fairly strong chance of getting in on those, as this morning's email indicated that only one trip had filled so far for the convention. Even if I didn't get those, my next choices are just as appealing - with the Redfeather Lakes and southeastern Wyoming among the possibilities.

Anyway, I hope that everyone out there has had more excitement in their week than I, and I hope my efforts will provide more field time as migration heats up.

Dive Bomb

Cute little female American Kestrel, right?

Big, tough, Red-tailed Hawk, right?

Not, hardly - here she comes....

A tight pass, the youngster Red-tail has its head turned sideways. The approach had been that close.

She banked and considered a second pass, but opted instead to relocate to another tree and call vehemently at her young adversary.

A real head-scratcher for this giant of a child! I guess there are still a few things for a hawk to figure out.

The judges weren't all that impressed and called it a draw.

Young Hawk Feeding - (mild gore factor)

Yesterday was overcast again, but added a wind factor that really kept the birds hidden away. I was out at lunch and only had pairs of Northern Flickers and Mallards, and a lone Red-tail Hawk. After work I got a bit of compensation though, a young Red-tail had made a kill and was posed in the same area where I had seen a Cooper's Hawk recently. Red-tailed Hawks are carnivores, and as such they eat other animals. The pictures below show a bit of that activity, but these are nothing to lose your lunch over. The heavy cloud overhead and bright horizon help to keep the messier parts dark, but this young hawk is just doing what it needs does, so cut it some slack and appreciate it for the messy eater that it is.

The juvenile Red-tail has some characteristics to help identify it, but also make it a bit tougher to distinguish from other raptors. If you can see a pale iris in the field or in an image you have a very good indicator. Unfortunately, birds being wild and not always distracted with their supper when we find them, an eye look is not always ensured.
This individual was cooperative enough to give me looks from most angles. With Red-tails a look from behind is often helpful. Three clues are visible on this bird. First, the head is lightly colored, but does have some dark on it. Second, the scapulars (feathers that cover the shoulders of a bird), form a white "V" pattern on the back. That one is nice because it can be easy to spot from a distance, but I find that I still don't trust it, as many hawks can have varying amounts and patterns of white on the back. I am sure that with time I will trust that one more, but for now I use it as a piece of the puzzle. Third, check out the tail! It has uniform gray-black banding, with a wider black tip.

This Hawk, a light-morph, has other traits when seen from the front that can help add to a composite identification. The breast and thighs are both mostly white, and there is a distinct white browline on the face.

Also, the legs are not feathered to the feet. On a sighting like this that is a big help, but if the bird is simply perching and observing or sleeping the bare legs may be covered by the body feathers, making for a more frustrating look. A bit of stretched flesh below - but for a raptor that is one of the most beautiful sights in the world.

Ok, enough of the feast. A parting shot of the pair of Northern Flickers who were willing to brave the breeze at lunchtime.

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!