I had a great weekend in the mountains looking for grouse. On Saturday, my first birding spot was the Silverthorne WTP there were no Barrow's but a female WOOD DUCK is a good bird up there. Some waterbirds around Kremmling and Wolford Mountain Reservoir (Grand) though nothing of note, and mostly ice free. Sandhilll cranes were common all day.
Lake Catamount (Routt) was some of the best birding all day. SAVANNAH SPARROWs sang from the wet fields, lots of habitat but no shorebirds. The lake was filled with a large number of ducks, notably 30-40 BARROW'S GOLDENEYE. The lake was only 20% ice free. The road to Craig held more ducks and cranes. The Craig area (Moffat) produced a few good birds. Loudy-Simpson Park and ponds on the golf course road had the most waterfowl, Marsh Wrens sang from the reeds along with Yellow-headed Blackbirds. My best birds were in difficult to view areas. Gravel Ponds South of town on 13 had a flyby MARBLED GODWIT and the Yampa River nearby had 7 BARROW'S GOLDENEYE. Driving into town from the west on Hwy 40 some more gravel ponds can be very distantly viewed from the welcome to Craig sign. These ponds had Pelicans, a few gulls and two GREAT EGRET, frustrating there is no better view point. At Elkhead Reservoir I had 14! COMMON LOON, which seemed to be a crazy number, but little else. I heard and saw Sharp-tailed Grouse at the Twenty Mile Road lek (Routt)at sunset and had a BOREAL OWL on Rabbit Ears Pass. On Saturday I saw Sage-Grouse at the lek near Coalmont. Everywhere in Jackson County was covered in waterfowl of the expected species. Two ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK are getting late. The town of Walden was not birdy but had some Evening Grosbeak. The Reservoir was 90% frozen but still had duck large numbers of California Gulls and Cormorants, also Franklin's, Bonaparte's and Herring Gull. A second go at Kremmling produced a female GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE but little else. I ended the day with my first humming bird on Floyd Hill. All in all tons of fun with more non-grouse fun than I expected. 102 species in two days. Directions to all birding spots are on the county birding website. Nick Moore Boulder www.flickr.com/photos/sdhjuw/ -- 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/CAEfNQ5nydGde0Za1-%3D5OuY08Z8nc-tkz7TAz2d9n0pss74jEnQ%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
