Hello, Birders. As you may have heard, a weather event is upon us. Fear not! Own it! Live it up! Go birding! And if you're in the Front Range metro region, as so many of us are, consider getting out of town altogether. I mean, we've all seen Ira's rosy-finches, Cathy's white-cheeked geese, and the Denver West Pine Warbler. Even Norm has seen the Pine Warbler. It's time for a change of scenery.
So please consider heading down to Lamar, Prowers County, for the 13th annual High Plains Snow Goose Festival, which gets under way tonight, Thursday, Feb. 19th. The festival winds down on Sunday, Feb. 22nd. There's so much to do down there. If I had to choose a single event that epitomizes the festival, it would have to be the Saturday afternoon tour to "The Black Hole," a.k.a. Two Buttes State Wildlife Area, Baca County. Each year, we get several dozen birders out there, and we see stuff like porcupines, Red-bellied Woodpeckers, and Sandhill Cranes sailing over. And the place has a knack for delivering crazy rarities: a gorgeous male Pine Grosbeak last year, all four *Zonotrichia* sparrows (Golden-crowned, Harris's, White-throated, White-crowned) the year before, etc. Who knows what we'll find this year! Although some events have filled up, many still have openings. And Lamar is a great place for exploring on your own. Check in at the registration booth, hear about Iron Man and Harry Potter (you have to pay to play, eh?), and get intel on where all the good birds are: cardinals, roadrunners, Purple Finches, Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, and whatever else they're finding down there. Oh, and you'll probably be subjected to just a wee bit of p.r. for CFO. (Ask me for *Colorado Birds*, other CFO schwag, and info on the Salida convention.) Here's some general info on the Snow Goose Festival: http://www.highplainssnowgoose.com/ And here's the jam-packed schedule of events: http://www.highplainssnowgoose.com/SNF_2015_Brochure.pdf Looking forward to birding with many of you this weekend! Ted Floyd Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/6039c8b1-ea65-47f9-aad8-9706821c45e6%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
