Back from Colorado

My trip out to the Rocky Mountains for my family reunion was not as productive as I had hoped for my life list, but it was still a good birding experience. I added 8 species to my ABA list and 7 to my life list: Great-tailed Grackle (ABA), Swainson’s Hawk, Violet-green Swallow, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Band-tailed Pigeon, Sage Thrasher, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Upland Sandpiper. Of these, only the swallow and hummingbird were birds I saw while out birding, and not as a drive-by while traveling – although I did get better looks at Swainson’s Hawks on the 4^th at Windy Gap Reservoir. The Sage Thrasher was sort of an iffy look at a rest stop as we were getting in the car but I’m about 98% certain that’s what the bird was. The Band-tailed Pigeons I saw weren’t cooperative either, as I had a very brief look at a pair flying away as we drove up the mountains on our first day, but luckily one of the species’ major diagnostic marks is best viewed on a bird flying away – the banded tail, which is what I saw on the birds. That field mark plus the habitat pretty much cinches the identification.

Violet-green Swallow - The only life bird I was able to get decent photos of!

One of the reasons I think I missed a lot of life birds, besides the fact I was doing family activities and only had an hour devoted to nothing but birding, was the fact that there was a lot of active logging of lodgepole pines at the YMCA ranch we were staying at. The logging was to remove trees killed by the pine beetle infestation, which is on track to eliminate 90% of the lodgepole pines in Grand County in two years. Considering that most of the forest in Grand County is lodgepole pine, this is a major disaster. To get an idea of the scope of the infestation, take a look at the picture of the mountain below. Normally, that mountain should look green but instead is rust-colored from all the dead trees.

Anyway, the logging at the ranch was concentrating on removing dead trees from the property as a fire prevention measure, which I am sure has driven out a lot of birds. Still, I had a lot of good birds at the ranch, including Violet-green Swallows, Red Crossbills, Mountain Bluebirds, Northern Goshawk, Spotted Sandpiper, Green-winged Teal, American Widgeon, Pine Siskin, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, and others.

"Red-shafted" Northern Flicker (note the dead pines in background)

Pine Siskin, Rocky Mountain National Park

Female Mountain Bluebird

We only spent a little time in Rocky Mountain National Park, and it wasn’t very birdy where we stopped, unfortunately. I did get some spectacular shots of some bull elk browsing at 12,000 feet, thought, and a good moose photo!

Bull Elk, Rocky Mountain National Park

Cow moose, Rocky Mountain National Park

All in all, it was a good trip, and just a taste of the birding that awaits me on future trips out there…

Going to Colorado for a couple of days

I'll be in Colorado from Wednesday night through Friday night attending a family reunion. The reunion is at the Winter Park Lodge in Winter Park, at an elevation of roughly 12,000 feet. Obviously, I'll be birding as much as I can in between reunion activities. This won't be much of a problem, since we have a free day on the third. A lot of folks are going white water rafting, but my wife and my dad and his partner will probably go up to Rocky Mountain National Park to do some sightseeing. This will be my wife's first visit to the mountains, too, so that's exciting. It's been a long time since I birdwatched in Colorado - actually, this will be my second time, and it will be my first as an experienced birder. The first time I was there was on a family vacation when I was about 15 and I saw a lot of great birds but I didn't actually go looking for them, only saw them as encountered randomly while sightseeing with the family. I'm fairly sure that I saw a white-tailed ptarmigan that time, but I want to see one this time to be 100% sure. I don't have it on my list right now.

I went and looked at my eBird list to see what I had entered for Colorado, based on photos and memory. There are only 5 birds: Golden Eagle, Clark's Nutcracker, Black-billed Magpie, American Dipper and Mountain Bluebird (although I'm sure there's other birds on there I just didn't add, like Dark-eyed Junco which I know we saw). I should add significantly to that list this time out. In addition, my ABA list is at 388 right now (ebird says 389, but that's because they don't seem to have a good ABA filter right now - Black-hooded Parakeet isn't on the official ABA list yet). I think there's an EXCELLENT chance of hitting 400 on this trip. This is due to the fact that besides spending 2 whole days in the Colorado mountains, we had to fly into Kansas City because of airfare costs instead of flying into Denver. So we have about a 12 hour trip to and from Winter Park that will take us across the Colorado and Kansas plains, givining me a good chance at birds like Swallow-tailed Flycatcher, Say's Phoebe, Swainson's Hawk, and Ferruginous Hawk. I'll basically be plastered to the minivan window, staring out at the plains the entire time, hoping for one of these birds, as well as starting my Kansas list . . . A birder is never bored on a long car trip!

Skipped on the Burrowing Owl

No positive reports + violent T-storms on the way = me not going out for the owl. That is all.

Burrowing Owl in Ohio!

Just in - a Burrowing Owl has been photographed in Darke County Ohio. This is the fourth record of the species in the state. I'm going out after work tonight with friends to try and see it. Apparently it's been hanging around some culverts for the last week. If we see it, it will be my second burrowing owl for the year (the first was in the Florida Keys).

Also, I won a copy of the new Smithsonian Guide to North American Birds by participating in 10,000 Birds Great Smithsonian Guide Giveaaway! I'll post a review of it here when I receive it. Thanks to the jammy finger of Charlie's child for selecting my entry!

Black Rail!

I went out Monday night and spent two hours at Charlie's Pond, a little wetland in Pickaway County that has a history of producing odd birds every now and again. Since the 1st of June, at least 1 Black Rail has been calling here, and appears to have set up a territory. I waited for about an hour, heard the birds at 830, and waited another hour, but one call was all I was going to get, it seems. One call is all it takes to add it to my life list though!

The Scioto County atlasing went well - my best breeding confirmation was Kentucky Warbler. We also went out on Saturday night for nocturnal birds, and had a great encounter with a Barred Owl that called and flew in so we could look at it, and in a different spot we had four Eastern Screech-owls and a Chuck-will's-widow (another heard-only lifer!).

Doing some blockbusting this weekend

I'm going to be helping my friend Brad do some breeding bird atlas survey work down in southern Ohio this weekend. He arranged for free camping, which is a nice bonus. Hopefully, I'll get some more state year birds as well - I'm having an average year for the state list, but my best year ever for the ABA area - which is partly why my state list is suckin'!

We're going to stop in Pickaway County on the way down tomorrow to try for Black Rails that may have set up shop in a local wetland - at least two males and perhaps a female have been calling all week. Of course, with my luck, it will be gone by the time I get there...

Florida Trip, Day 6: May 16

Willet, Fort Desoto State Park

The Last Day

After a fine day in the Gulf of Mexico, our last day in Florida was devoted to a bit of “mop-up” and then some time in the Tampa/St. Petersburg area. First off, we arose very early in the morning and headed back to Miami in search of Spot-breasted Oriole and White-winged Parakeet, both of which we had missed on Monday but had gotten some tips about good locations. We ended up back in the same neighborhoods, just at more likely times. We spent nearly 2 hours searching. An oriole was heard but never seen at our first location, which also featured Monk Parakeets and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets. Our target birds were not present, but a great bonus prize was an Eastern Screech-Owl that flew up and perched in a tree right in front of me! After two hours, we gave up on our target birds. We were stopped at a light right before the freeway ramp, ready to head north and west, when John yelled out “Oriole! It flew into that tree!” We all whipped our heads around and while not the best views in the world, there was a Spot-breasted Oriole, perched up in the top of a palm! It flew off, and our light turned green. Our mood of defeat was turned to triumph, and away we went, life bird number 415 safely ticked.

We made it to Fort DeSoto State Park about 1pm, a place known for shorebirds and as a location for Black-hooded Parakeets. We did not find the parakeets, but some careful scrutiny of shorebirds revealed an American Oystercatcher (ABA bird 383 for me) and a Snowy Plover (ABA 384, life bird 416)! After an hour and a half at the park, we followed some directions in Bill Pranty’s guide to a marina in St. Pete, and we drove around for a bit until we heard the screeching of parrots. We found a house with platform feeders and Monk Parakeets, along with a Snowy Egret in a pine tree and a Great Egret on their deck.

Snowy Egret, pretending to be a Pine Warbler

Suddenly, a big parakeet dropped down onto a platform feeder, and there it was – Black-hooded Parakeet, a recent addition to the ABA list, and now the most recent addition to my lists (ABA 385, life 417)! This was a big, good looking bird, and pretty vocal – this was the parakeet we heard that drew us to this location. The parakeet was also the only bird of the trip that was a life bird for everyone.

Black-hooded Parakeet, St. Petersburg

We headed north again, towards Hernando Beach and possibly the last place in Florida where there is an established population of wild Budgerigars, or Budgies. For a typical noisy psittacid, these guys were difficult to find, and we spent two and a half hours driving around a sleepy retiree neighborhood until, just as we were about to give up, a small flock flew overhead and perched in some bushes. This was our last target bird and closed out our trip, as we decided to head home a day early. I finished up the trip with a life list totaling 418 and an ABA list of 386, an increase of 46 birds. Overall, the trip was highly successful, with around 180 species observed and hitting almost all of our target birds, minus Greater Flamingo, White-tailed Kite, Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow, Red-crowned Parrot, White-winged Parakeet, and Fulvous Whistling-Duck.