Highlights of a day-long visit to Cameron Pass (Larimer/Jackson) and the Walden area (Jackson) today (3/15/2011) included:
The feeders at the Moose Visitor Center along SR14 on the Jackson County side of Cameron Pass at Gould: Pine Grosbeak (at least 10) Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch (at least 300) Brown-capped Rosy-Finch (at least 25) [Black Rosy-Finch (0, that I saw)] Gray Jay (2) Ermine (1) fantastic little creature, pure white with a black-tipped tail (also called "Short-tailed Weasel"), outside the Visitor Center's south door Walden, feeders of the Fliniaus: The Fliniau feeders in Walden have long been kind to seekers of rosy-finches, although this very nice couple reported very few this winter, and only on "bad weather" days. What is the world coming to? No rosy-finches today but two Eurasian Collared-Doves at 8200 feet. Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge about 10 miles south of Walden on SR125: Greater Sage-Grouse (about 20) feeding in sagebrush on the east side of the highway between mileposts 42 and 43 (at what would have been 42.5 to 42.8 in an area of dense vegetation where most of the snow had melted or blown away) Cameron Pass (at the Nokhu Crags scenic overlook along SR14 which is about 1.1 miles southwest of the Cameron Pass Summit). The Cameron Pass Summit is at milepost 65): Boreal Owl (heard at about 8:15pm under calm wind conditions, temperature in the upper low 40's, 5 days prior to the full moon). Rick Schroeder of Fort Collins reported hearing a Boreal Owl "at a parking area" near Cameron Pass a couple nights ago. Maybe the same bird, maybe not. The owls are up there. As Rick accurately stated, the trick to at least hearing one is the temporary absence of wind, car traffic, and overhead aircraft noise. A "fullish" moon seems to help stimulate the owls to vocalize. Dr. Ron Ryder and his grad student Dave Palmer pioneered the censusing of Boreal Owls on Cameron Pass over 25 years ago and they had double-figure birds on more than one survey during the months of February, March, April, May (and I believe, into June). Boreal Owls were found from Gould on the west side of the Pass, to several miles on the Fort Collins side of the Pass to almost Larimer County 103 Road (the Chambers Lake/Laramie River Road). The area near the Zimmerman Lake parking lot/trailhead has been consistently good in years past. Mountain Bluebirds seen at various locations in Poudre Canyon , and just southeast of Walden Reservoir. Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
