Walden, Colorado trip August 20010

On August 15,2010 our trip to North Park and Walden, Colorado with the Audubon Society of Greater Denver was a great success and enjoyed by all. Lee Farrell and myself lead 12 participants to see the late summer breeding grounds of many colonial nesting ducks, geese, grebes, and a variety of shorebirds. In all our bird count topped 84 species as we traversed several types of high planes habitats. Click here to view American White Pelicans foraging for fish at Windy Gap, Colorado.

The trip began with a rendezvous at the historic Peck House B&B in Empire, Colorado where we began with coffee, beagles, and hummingbirds. The Peck House front porch was abuzz with Broadtail and Rufus hummers. Our next stop after crossing Berthoud Pass was Windy Gap reservoir just north of Grand Lake. Here several species were observed to include a large group of American White Pelicans doing their unique fish herding routine.


The road to Walden from Windy Gap was an education of Pine Beetle devastation. Entire valleys of dead and dying lodge pole pines lined both sides of the road. It will be interesting to see the forest in succession. It will not be fast enough however.


The rest of the day was consumed with an auto tour of the Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge and the Walden Reservoir. Many shorebirds were noted to include Western, Eared, and Pied Billed Grebes.


The accommodations were at the North Park Inn in Walden which was a great stay.
On Sunday we began an ambitious day with an early morning nature walk in the riparian area of ANWR followed by a trip to Lake John to see Western Grebes with babies on their backs – a real treat to see.


The return trip to Denver was over Cameron Pass and through Pudre Canyon to Ft Collins. Below are just some of the pictures I took.



Our group of 14 North Park travelers.

















This guy got away. Walden is the Moose viewing capital of Colorado but not seen ot this trip. This picture was digiscoped on an earlier scouting trip






A neat digiscope picture of a Barn Swallow early in the morning in the Arapahoe National Wildlife Refuge.

This was a shot of an elusive Greater Sage Grouse. A life bird for several in the group. The Greater Sage Grouse is under threat with habitat loss.

Pied Billed Grebe let me get close with my Leica camera.

A big goal was to find grebes with young riding on their backs. Here are 2 shots of Western Grebes parents doing just that.

An overlook of the Arapahoe Nathional Wildlife Refuge. Home of many a Moose.

Diane with our spotting scope trying to find a Moose!

Bird walk in Wash Park with The Friends of Washington Park

Had a fun time leading a bird walk for The Friends of Washington Park (FANS) recently in Washington (Wash) Park The winter cold weather was winding down but the partially frozen Smith Lake allowed some close watching of ducks, geese, greebs, and shorebirds. Seeing them this close up is in the urban setting of Denver is a real treat.

Coopers Hawk left overlooks Smith Lake.

Just a Ringbilled but had fun digiscoping from about 60 yards with my Cannon point and shoot and Swarovski Spotting scope.

This Northern Shoveler and about 6 others were in character swimming in tight circles to create vortexes to have food rise to the serface.

Common Golden Eye was a very entertaining diver at Smith Lake.

Most pictures taken with Leica cameras.

RAPTOR ROAD TRIP RECAPS

The Eagles, Owls, Hawks, and Falcons of the Northern Colorado Front Range




The winter months bring great raptor watching on the front range with many species checking out nest sites and beginning their courtship rituals. Along the back roads of Weld County and Bolder County north of Denver and midst the spreading sprawl of urban neighborhoods mixed with farms and open space, we found an abundance of Eagles, Owls, Hawks, and Falcons. Our expert guides Harold and Betty Oliver of the Audubon Society of Greater Denver led our group to raptor hot spots and produced a total of 84 raptors including 15 Bald Eagles, 2 Golden Eagles, 43 Red Tail Hawks, 7 Ferruginous Hawks, 2 Great Horned Owls, 12 American Kestrels, and 3 Northern Harriers. It was a great day trip and we plan to do it again on April 18th to check on the nest sites to see how the Eagles and Owls are doing. We hope to see Ospreys by then as they should have returned from South America.




A lone Red Tail Hawk uses a idle oil pump as a pedestal to survey its territory. Click here to see a Red Tail in flight.






Our Birding group a one of many stops looking at raptors on display in their natural habitat.




















Many on the road trip took advantage of the photographic opportunities.

These two eagles were close to a nest site in Weld County. We saw them a year earlier on a another road trip. Click on the picture and see a digiscoped video of them watching over a field with rabbits and other rodents. Digiscoped with a cannon point and shoot camera on a Swarovski spotting scope
from 1/4 mile.

This digiscoped Great Horned Owl is on eggs that will hatch soon. We expect her chicks will be available to observe by April. We plan a "nesting" road trip on April 18 to see them. Click here or on the picture to see chicks we observed last year near Chatfield State Park

Our very esteemed Raptor Road Trip leaders- Harold and Betty Oliver of The Audubon Society of Greater Denver. You can do other trips sponsored by the Olivers and ASGD by visiting denveraudubon.org

We were lucky to get close up views of several Ferruginous Hawks. They are the largest of all hawks and have been considered to be included in the family of eagles.

Click here and on the small picture below to view a short Ferruginous video

We came across this cooperative Bald Eagle sitting on top of a slag rock pile.

We invite all of our Raptor Road Tripper's to share some of their pictures with us. We will give credit and links to any web site promoting pictures of birds and wildlife in their natural habitats. Send your pictures to frontrangebirding@gmail.com.

Here is more on our Front Range Birding trip to the Northwest Coast in January. Our trip was with Partnership with International Birding http://www.pibirding.com/. Our trip yielded 114 species including 32 lifers for me. It was quite the winter trip for great photos and digiscoping. We owe Harry Fuller our expert guide all of our appreciation for leading us to all of our finds. Check out Harry's blog pibirding.wordpress.com

Check out this youtube video of a Black Oystercatcher foraging

Bald Eagle

Check out this youtube video of a Winter Wren defending his territory

Sandhill Cranes over Sauvie Island.

Harlequin Ducks on the Olympic Peninsula

Barrows Goldeneye

Here are several pictures from our Northwest
Birding trip.

Our intrepid group on a beautiful sunny Oregon afternoon. Trip with our expert guide Harry Fuller of Partnership with International Birding. More photos and trip discription can be viewed at http://www.pibirding.wordpress.com/.

Black Oyster Catcher on Haystack Rock at

Cannon Beach, Oregon. digiscoped with Swarovski 20x60 ATS HD scope

Right is Haystack Rock

On the beach with scopes and digiscoping in

Oregon.


Mt Saint Helens, WA

Below is part of a large group of Sandhill Cranes.

Many Dulins were seen every day at surfs in

Oregon and Washington. digiscoped with Swarovski

ATS HD scope.

Pictures taken with Leica CLux 3 and VLux cameras.

Just one day into our birding tour of the Northwest in the dead of winter. Some say we are nuts to do such a thing but the fact is it is a great place to bird as many shorebirds, ducks, and raptors chose this food rich relatively mild weather environment to overwinter in. Check out here some of the pictures of our first day that produced 60+ species today and several “lifers” for me. More to come.

New Swarovski Binoculars and Red Tail Hawk

Today I received my new pair of Swarovski EL 8.5x42 WB binoculars, which also included a snapshot adapter for taking digital pictures with the binoculars. Not five minutes after opening the box, I looked out in my backyard, and saw a red-tailed hawk sitting in a tree! What a perfect opportunity to try out my new toy. I grabbed the binoculars, adapter, and my Canon PowerShot A590IS camera. Here's the first pic I got -

Not bad! The hawk shortly flew down to the ground and kicked some leaves around.

Something scared him into a tree then, and I got these great pics -

Here's what it looked like without the magnification from the binoculars and adapter -

Makes a big difference. The hawk then flew over my head (!) to another tree and hopped around trying to get a better view of a squirrel. Eventually a bunch of blue jays landed in the tree and started harassing it, even running into it, until it had enough and flew away. I was so glad I had the chance to try out my new Swarovski binoculars and look forward to getting more practice with the snapshot adapter. This red-tailed hawk made species #22 for my yard list.

You can see all the pictures I took, good and bad, here: http://www.picasaweb.google.com/frontrangebirding/RedTailHawk#