Monday 7/11: Today was devoted to trying for a few more targets, mostly back in Rocky Mountain National Park. After checking out, I started towards the park. On the way, I stopped at Dixon Reservoir, which had California Gulls recently according to BirdsEye. No gulls on the water, but a magpie finally cooperated for photos.
(Almost every shot had the eyelid down for some reason)
Sunday 7/10: Today was the second day of field trips. After a stop at Safeway for muffins, I joined the group and immediately could tell I made the right decision staying out of the mountains. The first interesting sighting of the day came while waiting for everyone to assemble, when a train made up of airplane bodies passed by.
I ended up riding with Dave and Shelley again and we headed to the first stop, the CSU Environmental Learning Center. It was a bit dry and windy and it took some time to find something beyond meadowhawks. We did eventually come up with Blue-eyed Darners and a few other moderately interesting odes. Also lots and lots of grasshoppers (several in every net swing through the grass) plus a Spurge Hawk Moth caterpillar.
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.
Friday 7/8: Today was the first day of field trips. I was one of the first arrivals at the parking lot, but it didn’t take long for a big crowd to develop. We eventually headed out and I joined Dave and Shelley. As is usual on these field trips, I didn’t spend a lot of time with the camera.
Our first stop was Parvin Lake. It was still pretty overcast, so after being entertained by a hummingbird by the bathrooms, it took quite a bit of effort to find any odes. After a lot of sweeping of vegetation, I came up with a single forktail. We followed the road out to the further edge of the lake and it started to brighten up a bit and a few things were flying. But the main highlight was a cat that appeared to live at the research station which decided that Steve’s net was the perfect spot for a nap (unfortunately no picture).
Wednesday 8/17: Rock Meadow was pretty quiet. Hummer, family of mockingbirds, and not much else.
Thursday 8/18: BBN before work was pretty quiet. Bunch of pewees, a hummingbird (site tick), a redstart, and a couple orioles. Duck ponds at lunch were dead. Big flight of robins and grackles over the house at night (robins south, grackles northwest) plus a single nighthawk and 2 shorebirds (snipe?). Bad note was a dead screech-owl on Miriam.
Thursday 7/7: The DSA meeting semi-started this afternoon, so I spent the morning poking around locally before meeting up with people. I used BirdsEye to look for close locations for a few of my remaining targets and picked Bobcat Ridge Natural Area. It was only a short distance from Fort Collins and proved to be a very nice place.
The parking lot was loaded with Brewer’s Blackbirds, finally giving me a good chance to study them. Still not seeing much similarity to Rusty, way more gracklish.
Wednesday 7/6: Today was spent in the Pawnee National Grasslands. I did the standard loop and then went back and forth a bit (including a trip up to some fields near Nunn) looking for Chestnut-collared Longspur. Nothing really worth describing in detail, so here’s photos:
Lark Bunting
Tuesday 7/5: I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park today. After a bit of getting lost in Estes Park, I reached the park, paid, and started in. I decided to stop at the first trail to get a feel for the place (plus it was a good hour and a half to the park and I was ready to stretch), so I got out at Lawn Lake and started to walk. Almost immediately I found a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel. I pulled out the camera and found that it wouldn’t turn on. Fortunately, it turned out that I didn’t disconnect it properly downloading pictures last night and the battery was drained. But I was limited to phone cam only for the day.
Monday July 4: Today started well and then ended with a bit of a disaster. After clearing out of the hotel, I headed for Deer Creek Canyon Park. It was fairly similar to Roxborough (and all the foothill parks) but had a bit more birdlife. Early highlights included Yellow-breasted Chat and White-throated Swift.
Further around, I found the only Virginia’s Warbler of the trip and had a more cooperative Lazuli Bunting.
Wednesday 8/10: Paine was quiet, although I only worked the downhill portion for a change,
Thursday 8/11: Walked through Forest Grove with next to nothing. Took a couple seconds to scan Purgatory Cove on the way out and had 2 Solitary and 3 Least Sandpipers along with a Great Egret. Should have spent all my time there.
Friday 8/12: BBN, ended up chasing dragonflies. Caught a female Clamp-tipped Emerald, saw a few more emeralds, an Aeshna, a Common Green Darner, and probably a Dragonhunter.