North East Colorado Field Trip

Day Two Highlights:

Sad update on the Hotel Bat: apparently he did not move from his spot at all between yesterday and today...

We began the day at Tamarack (very birdy) with lots of Red-headed Woodpeckers, Orioles and Flycatchers. I now have a slightly better understanding of the term empid.

Western Wood Pewee with Dragonfly

Down the hatch!

Willow Flycatcher

We made our way over to Jumbo Reservoir, stopping for assorted peeps and other shorebirds.

Pectoral Sandpiper

Long-billed Curlew!

and Black-bellied Plover!

We finished the day looking for warblers. While looking we happened upon two Common Nighthawks and a young scruffy-looking Downy Woodpecker:

a few more photos from today:

Personal trip highlights:

Mississippi Kites (juvenile!)

Prairie Rattlesnake

Common Tern

Red-headed Woodpecker

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Black Tern

Townsend's Warbler

Gray Flycatcher

Black-bellied Plover

Long-billed Curlew

It might be a little while before I head that far east again, but I think it was fantastic!

RMNP Highlights

A FANTASTIC Day at Rocky Mountain National Park. We went seeking White-tailed Ptarmigan. Of course, Connie found us one (eventually two.) I think we were amazed all day.

Ptarmigan video just for kicks:

Summer Nesting seems to be just getting started at RMNP:

Red-naped Sapsucker in nest cavity

Cooperative Tree Swallow

Female Violet-green Swallow at Nest Cavity

Dad looks on...

The always great-to-see Yellow-bellied Marmot

Having a mid-afternoon stretch. (The end of

a really wonderful day....)

The rest of the photos:

Early June

Highlights this Week:

Pawnee Grasslands on Tuesday, where I was completely not expecting this Red-headed Woodpecker!

I followed him around Crow Valley Campground for awhile, 

almost dizzy with pleasure at getting to see this bird.

Heading toward the Pawnee Buttes:

Sleeping Fox and

Not-so-sleeping Fox. Just before the fox

I saw the "burrowing owl fence post shot"

of my dreams, and was 5 seconds too slow.   Grrr.

Something to look forward to :)

At Pawnee Buttes the usual suspects:

Rock Wren

 

Western Kingbird (everywhere)

This Brown Thrasher was in the exact spot Brad and I 

watched one last year!

A few owls on the way home (of course not posing beautifully 

on a fence post 10 feet from the car!!!) Grrr. 

Wednesday I went to Lower Latham, visited with the Avocets and enjoyed listening to the Marsh Wren commotion. Unlike at Crow Valley, there's a little less water here now:

Blue-winged Teals

American Avocet

Black-necked Stilt

Common Yellow-throat, new for me at Lower Latham

Wednesday afternoon I stopped at the Environmental Learning

Center in Fort Collins:

Today a visit to Bobcat Ridge, where I saw no snakes, one coyote who hightailed it, and one mouse/lizard who did the same:

Towhees everywhere...this one more cooperative than most.

A Busy Wren

So I thought I saw the back of a Lazuli Bunting (something I've only 

caught fleeting glimpses of.) Then it flew and I thought 

I heard it. (ipod confirmed I did.) But I couldn't find it.

So I sat down (for an hour or so) listening to the Bunting and not finding

it. Out of nowhere comes this Yellow-breasted Chat! (something else I've only caught 

the barest of glimpses of.)

I entertained myself watching the chat; the bunting stopped

singing. I gave up and walked away. Then the bunting started singing again.

 

Where is he? (Keep in mind this photo only shows a portion of

one of the two trees I was staring at for an hour.)

Ohhh.

More photos:

Really Feeling like Spring

A WBU Walk with Connie today started off wonderfully with an Osprey flying over the parking lot.

Quiet Great Horned Owl observes the group...

An incredible amount of Turkey Vultures...flying overhead...

hanging out in trees (next to an immature Bald Eagle!)

Song Sparrow puts on a show...

Downey Woodpeckers acting Funny...

 and Goose on nest.

 

This afternoon, a quick stop at Running Deer 

provided a FOS Snowy Egret!

Drive-by Raptors

The Nunn Guy's Raptor trip this past weekend.....plus, some test shots from the new G11:

Roadside Pheasant

Rough-legged Hawk

Red-tail Buddies

G11 test shot

Golden Eagle getting harrassed

Another test shot

Kestrel with funny tail

Bald Eagle

Upside-down Red-tail (Right-side-up shortly thereafter)

Busy Downy

Red-shouldered Hawk in Windsor!

Red-shouldered in flight

Sparkling Winter sunshine and the rest of the photos....