Saturday 7/9: Today was the indoor portion of the meeting. However, that didn’t start until 8:30 or so, so I decided to get up early and make the 40 minute run back to Pawnee to try again for Chestnut-collared Longspur. I had no luck with those again, but did get a semi-cooperative Golden Eagle on a telephone pole (for a few seconds before it flew straight off).
Back to Fort Collins in time, the morning part of the meeting was very enjoyable. All the talks were excellent and other than a bit of nonsense over use of funds during the business portion, there was nothing to complain about. For lunch, Boris had arranged a meal at the student center. A few people had grumbled a bit about the lack of a cookout on the schedule, but that stopped when we saw the quality of the meal. Tons of pasta, chicken, and other things, and it was all delicious.
After finishing lunch and taking the group picture, we headed back inside for more talks. I won’t complain about any, but by the last hour, they were too much. One or two less would have been ideal, especially when several were just going over survey results that were available as hand outs.
For dinner, I joined Dave, Shelly, Kathy, Dave, Paul, and Steve at Tortilla Marissa’s. I had chicken flautas, which are deep fried tortillas and were excellent. Again, we were outside and had a great time.
Back to the hotel to get ready for the final day’s field trips. I was still a bit undecided about whether I wanted to go up to the mountains or stay more local. The mountains had more exciting stuff, but weather was likely an issue and reports were that things were just starting their flight season. Plus the mountain trip left much earlier, so staying local won out.