Clear Creek

Saturday's walk wasn't all goofy Mallards. I had headed over, hoping to add a couple more species to my list for the year. After some of the goodies found in the area last year I thought it would be a good place to start. My plan was to check to the west, where Rusty Blackbirds had been seen last year, and then turn back to check the ponds to the east of I70. It didn't take long for me to hear, and then see a pair of Killdeer.

But there was another species that I had seen in the same spot before, and was hoping to relocate last weekend. I find it entertaining that the last post on this bird was from the same spot, posted exactly one year ago. I wonder if the bird was thinking - oh boy there is that human watching me hunt with that big eye looking thing again!


As the number of pictures and my previous posts can attest, I get a huge kick out of American Dippers.


They make their living in rushing water that would push us downstream with ease. As my cloudy day shots can attest, they are well suited to blending with rock and water. But, what could otherwise be an easily overlooked bird is actually fascinating to watch. Not only do they swim in the torrent, they also emerge and submerge body parts in all sorts of comical ways!


Not only that, but when out of the water they are constantly bobbing up and down on their legs. They totally remind me of old Disney cartoon characters dancing.

Dippers also seem to do a lot more wing stretches. Not sure if it is more because they get worked under water more, or if it is just so cold in there that they try to warm them up every chance they get!


Their activity makes them really fun to watch, but as the temps warm up and trees leaf out they get harder and harder to watch or photograph. This spot is a bit unusual because the bird is basically out in suburbia. They are normally associated with mountain streams, but this one is a good seven miles from the foothills.


I really like that this bird has made itself such a convenient stretch of creek for its territory, hopefully it won't be another year before I get to watch again.


Maybe the reason it was stretching above was because this species is always mixing eating and swimming - didn't its momma ever tell it to wait thirty minutes?

The mostly-cloudy skies didn't lend themselves to great photos, so I just kept walking west rather than turning back to the ponds.


I finished my walk passing the miles of Coors Brewing campus before reaching Golden. Any brewery that has their own working yard locomotive to move around train cards of supplies has my respect!



With that, Mr. Ring-necked Duck says farewell. The beginning of this week featured freezing rain, sleet, light snow and fog - so photography has been minimal. Hopefully the beautiful if cool evening last night will be a sign of things to come.

A post that falls more to the artistic side of the scale than most of my shots do. Well, the Ring-necked Ducks above are just a good exposure showing their patterned bills and side coloration. The shot below though really struck me as the sun was dipping. A swimming rodent, either a muskrat or beaver appeared to be pushing something through the water, causing an extra wide wake and made for a really intriguing sight.

I also happened back towards the Great Blue Heron rookery and caught a couple of approach flights back-lit in the fading light.

It was one of the most quiet visits I have made to the Walden & Sawhill Ponds complex in Boulder. Usually this place serves up 25 plus species in just a few hours and without much effort. Yesterday, the most common sound was the welcome croaking of frogs. The Cottonwood Marsh pond, which was low last year and featured vast mudflats is now full and was packed with a good variety of ducks, but many of the smaller ponds and the woodlots were quiet.

Even so I had a great 4.5 mile walk and as always enjoyed my time there. It is such a large, segmented area that it is possible to go long periods without seeing another hiker, even as aircraft take off from the local airport with gliders in tow just over the treetops. Soon the ponds and trees will be full of migrants arriving or passing through. So perhaps it was good to have an afternoon to just soak up the environment.

Colatteral Duckage

Female Hooded Merganser

Saturday I had a bit of daylight left as I was heading back up from the hospital in south Denver, so I swung by a hot spot that I had not visited previously, but that was teeming with avian variety in the midst of the city. That is the stretch of the South Platte River that runs between Evans and Florida, and borders a municipal golf course.

Male Hooded Merganser

It was late afternoon on a short day, so I parked on the west bank, and walked north in the direction of the current.

Male Ring-necked Duck

I had a target species in mind, one that had been reported and refound multiple times in this same stretch over the course of a week.

Male Gadwall

While I was scanning for the single target individual I was amazed at the diversity of waterfowl that I was seeing along the half-mile or so stretch of river.

Male Northern Shoveler

All of these species were on display, and were well lit by the low sun angle and a bit of filtering by the shoreline trees.

Male Green-winged Teal

I didn't see a single new species on my walk, but I have never had an opportunity to get quality looks at so many different birds in one session, and to walk away with quality photographs of the majority was a really nice bonus.

Male American Wigeon

Not a single one of these birds was my target, that one is coming up in a following post along with its more frequently seen relative.

Male Bufflehead

No, all these ducks, and mergansers were seen simply because I had the good 'mis'fortune to turn north from where I parked and not check the 2o yards south of my car to the bridge at Evans Ave. But that species, and its comparison with its more 'common' cousins will have to wait for all these fine looking individuals to enjoy their time in the sun.

Walden & Sawhill Ponds

Another great day at a location I found via the Colorado Field Ornithologists' Birding by County site. This time it was a pair of preserves in northeast Boulder called Walden and Sawhill Ponds respectively. They are managed by different agencies, and are separated by a small fence with multiple access points. For the wildlife they make one large habitat with numerous lakes, ponds and marshes.

After seeing many Ring-billed Gulls, Mallards, Canada Geese and American Wigeons I spotted a juvenile Bald Eagle soaring above me.

Later I saw two adults soaring hundreds of feet above a human glider being towed aloft by a prop plane. That would have made a great picture, but trees and distance prevented it.

I got over it quickly though when I finally spotted a Great Horned Owl. This has been my most frustrating species since I started listing. I had decent pictures of one last spring in the wild, and worked with them enough at Birds of Prey to have one mistake me for a tree, but had not seen one yet that I could confirm since last October. I knew that they were out there, and that when I did find one it would be closer than I expected.

Sure enough this guy was sitting directly behind me at eye level. When I first spotted him he was on my sunny side and I couldn't get much detail.

I gradually worked my way around him at a safe distance.

What a magnificent bird!

These two were swimming on a larger lake as the sun began to sink behind a storm cloud on the mountains, a good portrait of Ring-necked Ducks.

As I took their picture movement erupted across the lake.

Another Great Blue Heron!

Two on back to back days is a nice trend, hopefully this means more owls soon.

Immediately after I saw what may have flushed him, this cool looking intermediate Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk, (also pictured at top).

He would have had more than he could handle with a great blue, so perhaps they were flying coincidentally.....

either way I'll take it.

The contrasts in that bird are very nice.

An excellent place for birding, and the Great Horned is a nice add to the list.

2009 Count: 56

Lifetime: 86