For a change of pace I went into the mountains for some birding today. Manitou Lake in Teller was enjoyable as always with winnowing snipe and a nice assortment of dabblers. I missed the Night-Herons and didn't have many migrants. I did flush three shorebirds that left the area, two looked like phalarope in flight. I stopped by my family's cabin we used to own off of CR 92 near 11 mile res and in some steamside willows flushed a female LARK BUNTING, a good bird in the mountains. While driving along 11 mile I found a great looking MCCOWN'S LONGSPUR on a fence post. Ebird shows no records for anywhere in the mountains and it is not listed in the county checklist. Other prairie birds nest in south park could this bird be attempting to nest? I did not see or hear a second bird. A few ponds between Spinney Res and Hartsel held many Avocet and both Red-necked and Wilson's Phalarope. Antero was pretty slow although heat waves stopped me from seeing much of the shoreline. Seeing the hundreds of breeding Pelican was fun however. Finally some stops around Dillon Res (Summit) produced almost no birds. At a small trail into the willows in Frisco I did find Savannah Sparrow and a LARK SPARROW not sure how rare lark sparrows are at this elevation but I've never seen them in the area. All in all a fun day with great weather and good day for plains birds in the mountains.
Nick Moore Boulder -- 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.
