Graham's Birding Blog: January 2015

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

Steamboat Springs, Colorado, 18 Jan 15

Another great day in the Rockies. Tresa Moulton, a local birder along with her husband David and 3 other birders took me out for the day to show me the best places to see birds. The first stop was amazing. We arrived at a private ranch not long after first-light, where we were invited, given hot coffee (needed as it was -16C outside!), freshly-made home-made cookies and allowed to stand at the window watching birds like Grey-crowned and Hepburns Rosy-Finches, Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees, Stellars and Scrub Jay and one American Tree Sparrow come to the feeders. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. As predicted by the owners, at around 8am the first of what turned out to be about 100 Sharp-tailed Grouse started to arrive at the feeders. The birds put on a fantastic show over the next hour or so, feeding right in front of us, with some birds actually displaying and fighting with other males. After this Tresa took me around a number of places, mainly feeders for the rest of the day. One particular feeder had about 50 American Goldfinches, Pine and Evening Grosbeak, Pine Siskin and a White-throated Sparrow (quite the rarity I'm told). A Townsend's Solitaire and American Dipper were also excellent add-ons to the day.

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Part of the 100 Sharp-tailed Grouse

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Displaying Sharp-tailed Grouse

Sharp-tailed Grouse


Displaying Sharp-tailed Grouse

Scrub Jay

American Tree Sparrow

'Hepburns' Grey-crowned Rosy-Finch

Grey-crowned Rosy-Finch

Hepburn's Rosy-Finch

Hepburn's Rosy-Finches

Tan-striped White-throated Sparrow

Red-shafted Flicker

Mountain Chickadee

Black-capped Chickadee

American Dipper

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, 17 Jan 2015

Wow! I can't believe that I've not blogged since August. Obviously autumn wasn't all that good!

Anyway, I've had a great weekend in the Rockies before attending the Black-footed Ferret Genetics Symposium in Ft. Collins, Colorado. ABA Birding editor and good friend, Ted Floyd was kind enough to put me up on the Friday night and then take be birding on the Saturday. We started up in the Rocky Mountain National Park at The Fawnbrook Inn, Allenspark where Grey-crowned, 'Hepburns' and Brown-capped Rosy-Finches came and went a few times. Other birds there or nearby included Red Crossbill, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain and Black-capped Chickadee, Pine and Evening Grosbeaks. We then headed off to 'Lower' Ward, where we had all three species (four taxa) of rosy-finches and Pine Grosbeak. White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches were also added to the list in the mountains. At lower elevations, Ted took me to a staked-out Long-eared Owl and then we searched a few rivers and ponds for waterfowl. Common and Hooded Merganser, Green-winged Teal, Shoveler, Ring-necked Duck, American Wigeon and Gadwall were all had. In the afternoon I headed off for Steamboat Springs, managing to see 22 Barrow's Goldeneye, Lesser Scaup and 30+ Ring-necked Ducks at the Blue River Treatment Plant, 2.7 miles north of Silverthorne.