Last night some of the Colorado State Field Ornithogist Cameron Crazies, and Mike McCloy who actually has allegiances to another part of Tobacco Road, headed up towards Cameron Pass for an afternoon/evening of birding. The weather was beautiful and the birds were very cooperative with Pine Grosbeaks singing throughout our hike, a Golden Eagle soaring above the treeline, and nice views of a Hairy Woodpecker. Our quest for White-tailed Ptarmigan seemed to have been thwarted by deep snow covering the willows at higher elevations, but as we watched the stars begin to appear as we ate dinner and waited for good owling conditions a few ptarmigan began calling and one even gave its 'song'. This was about 45-50 minutes after sunset, which was very unexpected since I normally hear them sing in the morning no earlier than civil twilight. Our main goal of the trip was to scout out Boreal Owls for a field trip later in the spring, and they did not disappoint. I have found that early in the spring short clips of playback are helpful to hear Boreal Owls respond with song, but later in the spring (especially April and probably early May) Boreal Owls are much easier to locate by song since they are singing frequently and not in response to playback.
Good Birding, Andy Bankert Fort Collins -- 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/CAMvLbkgspmp3ENc7CC1a%2BWdOzfug752-UKtU%2B34%2BPPHaogEPDQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
