All, I did a cycling big day on 21 May 2016, a week after everyone around the globe did big days. I had a lot of reasons for delaying a week. I started at Chatfield SP way before dawn and was mostly in Jefferson and Douglas Cos with some time in Arapahoe. Anyway, I had a fairly solid plan, some birds were scouted out, and all the logistics were worked out (food, drinks, bikes, etc). I didn't find any super rare birds, but all things considered, i.e. first pretty warm day and 15-20 mph winds from 10:30 am or so, I did extremely well.
First a HUGE thanks to David Suddjian who gave me tons of ideas and pointers on how to approach this and where to find certain species. AND thanks to Joey Kellner who encouraged me to start insanely early, helped justify my route, and gave me ideas on where to go as well. Here's the Good, the Bad, and the Windy: I started at Chatfield SP at 3am. Before I rolled out, I had Great Horned Owl, Gray Catbird, Canada Goose, and Eastern Phoebe on her nest. At 3:15, I started biking UP Deer Creek Canyon. Numerous Common Poorwills calling up the canyon, a few catbirds and chats heard over a steady headwind. S Valley Park has pretty easy Sora and Virginia Rails right now, and I had Sora calling while riding up the hill to the marsh. The Virginia took about 3 seconds to get. No nighthawk, but they are more crepuscular so I didn't really expect one at 4am. The full moon lit everything nicely and the 7ish mile climb to my dawn spot on High Grade Rd was surprisingly easy (that's relative!). Missed all owls at stops on way up. Dawn on High Grade Rd for an hour got me all the expected species and a couple more, i.e. Wild Turkey (sort of expected thanks to a local homeowner who eBirded them here several times). It was time well spent. On the way down I was insanely cold, but I added Pygmy Nuthatch, not where I scouted them, Cord Flycatcher, MacG Warbler and more. From my dawn spot down to S Deer Creek Rd, I had at least 6 Ovenbirds. A dozen Virginia Warblers as well along the canyon. I swung thru S Valley Park and then rode back up to Deer Creek Canyon Park, had 4 Cedar Waxwings flying downhill over the road (weird) and gobbled up all the other expected birds but missed singing Savannah and Lincoln's sparrow that I had the day before (missed both on the day!). The Eastern Phoebe I found on Friday at Valley Rd and Deer Creek Canyon Rd was still there singing, but I didn't stop. Western Scrubs Jay's were found, but took way too long. I was coming down Cougar Rd and saw a raptor over the hogback with the swifts. Fast stop and look: Cooper's Hawk! Only one of the day. Crazy spot while descending! I wanted/needed to have 65-70 species by the time I got to Chatfield to keep on track towards my species total goal and I was at 67! On track, for now. Chatfield swim beach was AWESOME, not because I got my only Chipping Sparrow but because Tom Behnfeld met me and brought me a couple breakfast sandwiches!! Thanks Tom!!! Woods upstream of kingfisher bridge were not as birdy as day before and I only added a couple species, but American Redstart was key. Now it's 10:45 and hot and windy. I swapped to my offroad bike (I mentioned the logistics were crazy). I strapped my tripod to a rack and put my scope in my backpack. I cruised the trail west of the gravel pond and all the sparrows I had a week ago were gone or hiding. One sparrow was flushed but left unknown. Winds were crazy. Managed ONE new species over the hour (Swainson's Hawk) and I was starting to question my sanity. I saw what I later found out was Hugh Kingery's birding group, and I didn't do playback for marsh wren at the small cattail area by the Audubon center. Losing hope at this point, I kept to plan thanks to a stomach full of Egg McMuffin! Waterton Canyon was open (didn't plan on that!), so I decided to roll up to where the Black Phoebe was last year. Nada, but I had an spirit lifting Olive-sided Flycatcher perched on top of a dead shrub on top of a hill. Perfect place for one. Stoked!! I cruised up Waterton Rd to a marshy area by soccer fields that I wanted to explore. Marsh Wren came attacking immediately to playback and vanished just as fast. Got my FIRST E. Collared-Dove too (can't miss those birds). I rolled up the Highline canal past Platte Canyon Res and missed most everything I had last week. So windy. Scored Golden Eagle, a male Blue Grosbeak flew in front of me, and the seemingly ever present Brewer's Blackbirds were on Titan Rd by Roxborough Park Rd. I went back towards Chatfield and got Horned Lark, House Sparrow (!) and stopped for about 5 sec and saw one Burrowing Owl at the SE entrance to Chatfield. I don't really enjoy not stopping, watching, and enjoying the birds, but I had a crazy mission to continue. Tick and roll. Plum Creek dead end road was unproductive other than Vesper Sparrow and a flat tire. I got a double flat here last week. What's the deal? On way to the marina, a Loggerhead shrike was an awesome surprise! Missed E Kingbird and grasshopper sparrow (missed the latter on Friday as well but one was there a week ago), but I'll take a shrike. The lake was windy, choppy and covered with boaters. Missed most everything I had the day before. Eared Grebe and Ring-billed Gull were species 100 and 101, but I thought I was at 99 species. Back to the car, hot, and getting dejected. Stuck at 99 species, I thought. I hadn't checked off all the birds I had seen/heard and didn't know it until that night! I got Rock Wren at the dam for apparent #100, and I celebrated like it was #100. I continued over the dam and up the Platte river greenway hoping to find something new. I may have quit early if I knew I was at 102 already. Good milestone for the conditions. Couldn't find a wood duck to save my life, but nailed a Belted Kingfisher at 430pm. How'd I miss it this long? It was also my first kingfisher ever on a big day. This is my 5th big day: 2nd bike and I've done 3 fossil fuel driven. I was beat and got home at 5pm where the reliable Bushtits put in an appearance while I relaxed in the yard. Species 104. I was done. 14 hours, 75 miles of riding, and a couple miles of hiking. I later had to go get my car. I couldn't physically make it back the 6 miles or so to Chatfield in that wind and exhaustion and my wife and daughter wanted me to stay home anyway. In the end, 104 is pretty good considering the conditions. I can't complain too much but that route could get many more species. I missed a bunch of birds, as you do on a big day, but especially a cycling big day since you can't get anywhere fast. Biggest misses were shorebirds (little habitat), White-crowned sparrow and most other sparrows, other owls (need to start earlier and scout more), bald eagle, snowy egret, BC night-heron, and some waterfowl that are around. But I got some birds on my "lucky" list. All part of the game. ***And a kicker, on Sunday night, 3 adult Black-crowned Night-Herons flew over my house in Littleton about 8pm! Where were they Saturday?! That's birding. Can't wait to do this again sometime! If you got this far, thanks for reading! Cheers, Scott Somershoe Littleton CO -- 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/C5F09E01-07F1-498D-99F1-4D0FAAD33A4C%40gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
