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Colorado Itinerary

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, stop in Chicago). Arrived late afternoon, picked up rented Dodge Journey (not quite the mid-size SUV I wanted but it was the only thing available at Dollar), and drove to hotel in Centennial. Night at Candlewood Suites. Dinner was the next door Burger King.

July 3: Up early to Chatfield State Park/Audubon Trails and then Roxborough State Park. Afternoon at Coors Field for the Rockies game. Hit a supermarket and made a sandwich for dinner. Second night in Centennial.

July 4: Morning at Deer Creek Canyon Park and briefly Lair O’ The Bear Park (rather crowded). Tried to go to Guanella Pass in the afternoon but couldn’t get through the Fourth of July celebrations in Georgetown so had a sandwich at the sheep lookout and then got stuck in a 3 hour traffic jam. Night at Hampton Inn in Golden, dinner at the adjacent Lil’ Ricci’s Pizza.

July 5: Rocky Mountain National Park all day. Dinner at Jason’s Deli. Second night in Golden.

July 6: Pawnee National Grasslands all day. Night at La Quinta in Fort Collins. Dinner at Larkburger.

July 7: Morning at Bobcat Ridge city park. Bought sandwich from Safeway for lunch. Riverbend Park in the afternoon where I met up with a few people from the conference. Dinner with more people at Avogadro’s Number. Second night at La Quinta.

July 8: DSA field trip to Praven Lake and vicinity. Dinner at Noodles. Night at Residence Inn, Fort Collins.

July 9: DSA indoor meeting. I ran to Pawnee for an hour before. Dinner with a group at Tortilla Marissa’s.

July 10: DSA field trip in the Fort Collins area including the CSU ELC, Frank WMA, and Golden Ponds. Stopped at Cottonwood Hollow on way back to hotel. Larkburger again.

July 11: Went back to RMNP then Windsor Lake before heading to Denver. Night at a Quality Inn towards the airport, dinner at Wendy’s.

July 12: Quick walk around Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR then returned the car and went to the airport. Flight to Baltimore and home to Boston, arriving a little after 7:30.

WIR 7/13-7/19

Wednesday 7/13: Prospect Hill at lunch. Just about birdless but a few Dun Skippers and 2 Azure Bluets made up for it. Got all excited over a hairstreak on the way back. Thought it was too big for a Gray and must have been an Oak but pulled up photos on the Mass Butterfly Club’s website and it was obviously a Gray. It then started basking with the wings open which would have eliminated any confusion immediately. Still nice and not one I see at the park a lot.

Thursday 7/14: Nothing much.

Friday 7/15: Duck ponds: kingfisher and lots of waxwings were about it.

Saturday 7/16: Pelagic

Sunday 7/17: Tired.

Monday 7/18: Purgatory Cove: lots of Wood Ducks, young Barn Swallows, and what appeared to be a sleeping raccoon (or two).

Tuesday 7/19: BBN had lots of dragonflies and butterflies including Mocha Emerald and many Appalachian Brown and Common Wood-Nymph. Also had a thrasher a little out of place in the middle area (wandering from the other side of the hill or further away?).

Pelagic Photos

On Saturday, I went on the BBC’s deep water pelagic. A bit on the slow side on the whole, no exciting birds and very few cetaceans. Fortunately the sharks made up for it.

Some photos:

Leach’s and Wilson’s Storm-Petrels

Wilson’s

Shearwaters (mostly real)

Basking Shark

Whale Shark!

Check out Scott Spangenberg’s video!

Tiger Shark

Long-tailed Jaeger

Moon over the harbor. Apparently didn’t pick up the clouds around it.

Whats This?

Back from a little over a week in Colorado. Lots of things to post about, but still working through photos and stuff so it’ll be a little while before I get things up.

In the meantime, here’s a photo that I almost deleted straight off the camera. What was I taking?

WIR 6/23-7/1

Extending a bit to fit the travel schedule.

Thursday 6/23: Didn’t do much.

Friday 6/24: Still not much.

Saturday 6/25: Red-bellied in the yard.

Sunday 6/26: Walked around the Cambridge Res and office parks without much. Prospect Hill for a bit after. Highlight was a Leptogaster robber fly.

Monday 6/27: Cat Rock Park in Weston, need to go there more. Nothing particularly of note though.

Tuesday 6/28: BBN was too buggy but a Cooper’s was nice. McLean was mowed, had what looked like a Mocha Emerald or two but couldn’t get a good enough view.

Wednesday 6/29: Horn Pond Mountain in the afternoon. Eventually turned up all the expected hairstreaks beyond Acadian but very little else.

Thursday 6/30: Nothing really.

Friday 7/1: Actually worked a full day. Charles at lunch was quiet beyond the first Blue-fronted Dancers of the year.

WIR 6/16-6/22

Thursday 6/16: Final Rock Meadow survey had the usual stuff. Stopped at BBN to check for cuckoos and Black-and-white without luck but did have a family of turkeys on the parkway (unfortunately they were too small to climb the curb, hopefully they eventually got around it but I didn’t want to watch in the traffic). Finally saw the Hairy that’s been calling off and on in the yard.

Friday 6/17: Lazy day. Hairy was around off and on, may have a nice size comparison video to post at some point.

Saturday 6/18: Repeat of Friday.

Sunday 6/19: Tried for rails along Concord Ave and at BBN early. No luck with those or cuckoos but did have a Blue-winged in a new spot and an Orchard Oriole. Great Meadows later: nice views of the Least Bittern, a Peregrine and kestrel, and some cooperative gnatcatchers. Also a bunch of first of year odes including Powdered Dancer, Marsh Bluet, Swamp and Slender Spreadwing, Blue Dasher, Eastern Amberwing, and Black Saddlebags.

Monday 6/20: Paine in the morning. Found something.

Tuesday 6/21: Bugs

Wednesday 6/22: Went to hmm looking for huhr without luck. Probable Purple Finch and nesting Cooper’s Hawks weren’t bad.

Start of Summer Bugs

I spent today poking around a few areas mostly in northern Middlesex county, mostly looking for bugs. Some highlights below:

Lancet Clubtail with Slender Spreadwing snack

Presumed Laphria sp Robber Fly, also with snack.

Elegant Spreadwing

Common Buckeye (1 of 4!)

Brook Snaketail, the main highlight of the day, waiting for confirmation on some of the details but likely the northeasternmost for Mass. Also thought that spot should have a snaketail. Update: confirmed as first for the Merrimack watershed in MA.

Moustached Clubtail

Why it’s named

Also American Kestrel and a chickadee nest I could peer into, a very nice day.

Nest

Couple shots of an interesting nest at the Paine Estate today. Owner ID appreciated.

WIR 6/9-6/15

Thursday 6/9: Rock Meadow survey. Rained heavily.

Friday 6/10: Habitat survey, about the same. Stopped at BBN on the way home. No luck with cuckoos but a Black-and-white was singing.

Saturday 6/11: Started at AGM where it was raining too heavily. Moved on to the Mary Cummings estate where I got the Alder Flycatcher that’s been around with relative ease (other than walking through thigh-high soaking wet grass). Also several Blue-wings here. Stopped at Paine on the way home, lots of young robins and Chipping Sparrows but not much else.

Sunday 6/12: Went to Great Meadows eventually. Good view of the moorhen but not much else.

Monday 6/13: Prospect Hill, bumped BT Green to Probable for Maynard 12 and added it as Possible for Boston North 3.

Tuesday 6/14: Hardy Pond had very little (but I looked very little).

Wednesday 6/15: Moody St to Prospect St was pretty quiet. Still 3 species of gulls hanging around but not much else.

WIR 6/2-6/8

Thursday 6/2: Rock Meadow survey: BB Cuckoo, BW Warbler, first hummingbird of the year finally. Monarch while mowing the lawn.

Friday 6/3: Habitat survey was pretty quiet but GH Owl and bluebird between points. Went to Great Meadows with Bob after. Got a couple second view of the Least Bittern flying and an Orchard Oriole was new for Great Meadows. Also a cooperative Marsh Wren:

Saturday 6/4: Ended up with a long walk around Prospect Hill. Tracked down John Hines’s Canada and Mourning Warblers (Mourning #194) and had several redstarts, a black-throated green (in my block?), 2 Black-billed Cuckoos, and a nice variety of butterflies and dragonflies including Dusted Skipper and presumed Swamp Darner.

Sunday 6/5: Great Meadows

Monday 6/6: Paine: Hummer, Hairy carrying food, most of the expected summer stuff. Lots of butterflies.

Tuesday 6/7: Minuteman survey. Turkey and I think Yellow-billed Cuckoo were new, the rest was hampered by loud traffic (at 5:30AM!) and then crows mobbing me.

Wednesday 6/8: Charles was pretty quiet. Lots of Prince Baskettails and a few Orange Bluets.