Monday 7/11: Today was devoted to trying for a few more targets, mostly back in Rocky Mountain National Park. After checking out, I started towards the park. On the way, I stopped at Dixon Reservoir, which had California Gulls recently according to BirdsEye. No gulls on the water, but a magpie finally cooperated for photos. [...]
Sunday 7/10: Today was the second day of field trips. After a stop at Safeway for muffins, I joined the group and immediately could tell I made the right decision staying out of the mountains. The first interesting sighting of the day came while waiting for everyone to assemble, when a train made up of [...]
Saturday 7/9: Today was the indoor portion of the meeting. However, that didn’t start until 8:30 or so, so I decided to get up early and make the 40 minute run back to Pawnee to try again for Chestnut-collared Longspur. I had no luck with those again, but did get a semi-cooperative Golden Eagle on [...]
Friday 7/8: Today was the first day of field trips. I was one of the first arrivals at the parking lot, but it didn’t take long for a big crowd to develop. We eventually headed out and I joined Dave and Shelley. As is usual on these field trips, I didn’t spend a lot of [...]
Thursday 7/7: The DSA meeting semi-started this afternoon, so I spent the morning poking around locally before meeting up with people. I used BirdsEye to look for close locations for a few of my remaining targets and picked Bobcat Ridge Natural Area. It was only a short distance from Fort Collins and proved to be [...]
Wednesday 7/6: Today was spent in the Pawnee National Grasslands. I did the standard loop and then went back and forth a bit (including a trip up to some fields near Nunn) looking for Chestnut-collared Longspur. Nothing really worth describing in detail, so here’s photos: Lark Bunting Lark Buntings and Horned Lark One of 9(!) [...]
Tuesday 7/5: I headed to Rocky Mountain National Park today. After a bit of getting lost in Estes Park, I reached the park, paid, and started in. I decided to stop at the first trail to get a feel for the place (plus it was a good hour and a half to the park and [...]
Monday July 4: Today started well and then ended with a bit of a disaster. After clearing out of the hotel, I headed for Deer Creek Canyon Park. It was fairly similar to Roxborough (and all the foothill parks) but had a bit more birdlife. Early highlights included Yellow-breasted Chat and White-throated Swift. Further around, [...]
Saturday 7/2: Late morning flight from Boston to Chicago and then on to Denver. Grabbed bags, took shuttle to rental car, got out to car lot and find that the only mid-size SUV they had available had a flat tire. So either I could take a Dodge Journey or take a sedan and exchange it [...]
From July 2 – July 12, I was in Colorado. I went for the Dragonfly Society of the Americas’ annual meeting, but I spent a good bit of time exploring before and after the meeting. Daily reports to follow, but for now here’s an itinerary. Summary: July 2: Midday flight from Boston to Denver (Southwest, [...]