Cobirds:
              For Larimer County.  A walk along the Ute Trail in Rocky 
Mountain National Park on August 10th Sat. yielded the following: 
 
Sage thrashers at 11,500 feet (approximately) - 2 - foraging in boulder 
field.  Nothing unusual to see sage thrashers this time of year, but above 
11,000 is kinda strange.  I've never seen them up that high before. 
 
Also between 11,400 and 11,600 feet on the Ute Trail:
Mountain bluebird - 10 - in family groups
Rock wren - 2 - singing
Horned lark - 17 - family groups; adults feeding immatures
American pipit - 6 
Mountain chickadee - 1
Common raven - 21 - chasing and feeding on grasshoppers (hundreds of 
them);  looked kinda funny
Elk - 35 (bull with full set of antlers)
Marmot - 2
 
Prairie falcon - harassing ravens - at first I thought the falcon was 
trying to kill the ravens, but then I realized it was just having fun, or 
practicing.  The falcon out-flew, out-maneuvered, and out-smarted the 
ravens every which-way; coming in at mach 10 and then lightly touching them 
on the back with it's talons.   It would pull high speed maneuvers, jinking 
and turning.  The ravens didn't stand a chance.  I watched this for 30 
minutes.  It didn't matter if the ravens were in the air or on the ground - 
the falcon tagged them every time.  Fun!
 
Alpine flowers are way past peak.  Upper Beaver Meadows is in full bloom 
though - with yellow being the predominate color: golden aster, goldenweed, 
yellow rabbitbrush, little yellow sunflower, yellow rubeckia, lavender 
horsemint, purple aster, mustard ssp;, lavender penstemon, harebells, and 
dozens of others.  Moisture in the park has been good.  There were small 
piles of hail in the alpine zone that look like snow.  The grasses and 
forbs are high down at lower elevations. 
 
Ute Trail is along Trail Ridge Road above timer line.   Get there early to 
avoid the massive amounts of tourists flooding the park. 
 
John T (Tumasonis),  Louisville CO 
 

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