Overcast, but Full of Possibilities

As I had mentioned in my previous post I was looking for the Avocets, and a reported Great Egret at the small drainage ponds behind the King Soopers in Broomfield. I was 50% on those two species, but on a gray spring evening there was plenty to see.


A Say's Phoebe, a flycatcher that can often be seen on any lone tree or shrub rising up above an open grass area, was back and making a feast of a very active and healthy insect hatch. The overcast allowed me to catch the motion of the flight, but kept the detail to a minimum.


The light was fractionally better as this Killdeer noisily arrived on the near bank. After I had circled the ponds and made sure I hadn't missed any other species of shorebirds I decided to head north past a large open space to McKay Lake, where I thought an Egret may have moved on to. I didn't find an Egret, but did add another grebe for the season, this time a Western Grebe.


I wandered back and forth through the clump of woods on the north side of the lake, hoping to catch an owl getting an early start on the night. After an hour or so I abandoned the plan, and in consolation decided to stop by for a quick peek at my 'neighborhood' owl nest. We had an inch or so of pea sized hail on Saturday night, and I was curious to see if that had any effect on the inhabitants.
When I arrived I was concerned, there was no sign of horns above the outline of the nest. Had it been abandoned? I walked closer with my bins and camera, and checked the trees to see if I could make out a silhouette in the trees against the lighter sky in the distance. Still nothing, but then I began to hear a wonderful duet, both adult owls, one from somewhere in the trees, and the other from atop a lamppost over a busy street began to hoot.
At first I was a bit bummed, if they were hooting I thought their nesting attempt may have failed, and they were reacquainting for another attempt. Then, the owl on the lamppost dove almost straight down to the roadside. After returning to the lamppost, and more hooting I suddenly caught motion again:


Both parents had returned to the nest, and each took turns feeding the hungry nestlings. There were at least two, and maybe three there, and after a few excited minutes watching I left them to their dinner.


I left giddy, the owls were doing well enough to be seen over the top of the nest, and hopefully I would be able to see them again with more preparation.
I had one more fun surprise, the last photo above was taken with ISO and Exposure Compensation dialed way up, as the owl had been perched at the top of the post, with a lighter sky behind. The additional light from the streetlight itself was enough to freeze the owl, while the panning and noise gave the background an impressionistic feel. Gotta love gettin' lucky!

Cherry Creek Reservoir Rarities

Yesterday morning I headed down to Cherry Creek to try to re-locate the reported Iceland Gull that had been hanging about in the area. As myself and several other birders were setting up scopes and scanning the gulls lining a sand spit this Say's Phoebe popped up just further along the shore.

This winter rarity posed just long enough for me to get a couple of shots using the digiscoping rig - giving me some hope that I may be able to figure out camera settings and get reliable shots at some point in the future. That bird, which has apparently been in the area as well, was close and cooperative.

Our main target, and my first ever Iceland Gull, was not nearly as close or stationary. These were the best of a series of very rough images. I did get great looks at the bird through other scopes that still had their standard eyepieces on, enough so to clearly identify this bird. Clearly though the digiscoping still needs a lot of practice.

Another great gull courtesy of Cherry Creek Reservoir, I hope more continue to show up this winter. The count update below reflects two new adds, the Iceland Gull, and another bird from last weekend that I still need to get posted....stay tuned.

2010 Count: 210
Lifetime: 251

Wrapping up a Week of Phoebes; the Say's Phoebe

Apparently not wanting to be shown up by its less common cousins, this representative of the Say's Phoebe species but on a show for me last evening, wrapping up a week of seeing all three of the North American Phoebe species.

This individual worked its way between several perches, making occasional flights to pick off the insects rising from the marshy area between us.

The Say's Phoebe features the tell-tale, dirty white over orange underparts, and blurry long wingbars on a dull gray back. The Black Flycatcher is distinctive with it's highly contrasting white and black sections, and the Eastern can be identified by it's lack of eye-rings, wingbars or other distinctive fieldmarks.

As a flycatcher it helps to keep an eye on the little critters buzzing around the area.

Flycatchers are a welcome returning resident. Their repeated, short flights from obvious perches make for good places to stake out to attempt some flight shots. We'll see if that can pan out this summer.

Inevitably, the opening Avs, Sharks game in the first round of the playoffs went down to the final minute. At least, the game that started at almost 9:00 pm locally ended in regulation and didn't end up being a triple overtime marathon affair. Fortunately for the hockey fans in Colorado the outcome was good for the Avalanche, but when my alarm went off at 4:30 I decided that sleep was more important than another visit to the owl nest, and crawled back under the covers for another couple of hours.

The Ones That Get Away

There are some species out there, like the American Goldfinch, that are easily identifiable, and photogenic. On my lunch today along the Coal Creek Trail I took the picture above. It is in poor light, and has a branch in the foreground, but nonetheless tells the story that I saw a Goldfinch on my walk.

Much the same, this Say's Phoebe accompanied me on my cut across a field along a barbed wire fence. Despite being very close it always remained "up" sun from me. That made good eye shots impossible, and washed out a lot of detail. Even with those challenges identifying the bird was no challenge, and after a first glimpse I knew I was walking with a Phoebe.

Here is my mystery guest though. Much like a Yeti, Loch/Sea Creature or Missing Link it evaded any clear picture of its head or breast. This was despite the fact that I was a few feet from it, and it didn't flush immediately.

It was crafty in its ability to move between leaves and branches, and despite the moves we both made, I could not catch more than a fleeting glimpse at any time. All the same I had the impression of a small, uniformly brown, finch like bird. This was between two longer observations of American Goldfinches, and it gave off the impression of being close to the same size beak to tail, but of being more sleek as well.

It remained quiet while I observed it, and stayed close to the center of a shrubby tree right on the bank of the creek. It continued to deeper cover based on my position with a series of small jumps or hops, rather than flights of any kind of distance. However I should state that when I lost it I could not relocate it in the same tree despite watching for some minutes.

Have you ever seen this bird before? Do you recall a similar experience with an unidentified feathery flier? After multiple searches and slow looks through my copy of Sibley I am resigned to not finding the answer after this encounter, but that doesn't mean I wont be back looking again.

In the meantime just another one of those birds to keep me scratching my head in wonder.

Broomfield Evening

Who can't enjoy an hour at the local park when the sun is making new growth glow?

As I walked two areas of the park I added a handful of new species for the county, and saw the Bushtit above that was a new add for the lifelist.

I stopped for a bit to watch for sparrows in the grass, and instead caught this Phoebe and its prey.

The setting sun didn't provide much light, but this Pied-Billed Grebe was even more accommodating that the one I saw Friday evening.

Finally I saw this Redhead Duck couple taking a leisurely dip at sunset. What a night capped off by a playoff Nuggets game that kept me up 'till midnight. Well worth it, but not conducive to getting a sunrise look at Plaster Reservoir - tomorrow.

2009 Count: 124

Lifetime: 140

Lunch before the weather broke

I drove over to Superior on my lunch yesterday to see if I could get close to a reservoir that I glimpse on my drive into work each day. My first attempt missed the res. but I did find a stream that runs along a road out to the Superior water treatment facility. This is the stream that eventually passes below the Flatirons Mall. I walked along and had some nice views of the Red-tail nest pictured above. I also chased and failed to get a good picture of a Song Sparrow that was working through the underbrush along the stream. I thought it was some kind of a wren, but looking at the poor photos was enough to clarify what I had seen.

As I turned to head back to my car I spotted a bird rising from the open field in to a small tree away from the creek. I snapped a few pictures and initially thought it was a not-quite-right Meadowlark. Looking at the pictures later confirmed that it was not a Meadowlark. I worked through the common species for the site based on E-bird, and eventually confirmed that I had seen my first Say's Phoebe. Based on the reports on the listserve I would imagine that this will be followed by many more sightings, and hopefully better pics.

I eventually did make it to Hodgson-Harris Reservoir, but the weather was turning and it had become heavily overcast. I also had a bad angle, as much of the bank is Private and gated, and I did not see access to the Boulder Open Space area surrounding the other sides. I did pick up some additional species for the month, but didn't come back with any additional noteworthy pics.

Hopefully the clouds burn off by lunch, and the good fortune continues.

2009 Count: 79

Lifetime: 103