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| Mountain Goat on the summit of Mt Evans - 14,420' |
Sharon and I made the trip to Colorado to watch over our grandson Max. After my son successfully piloted the Stratolaunch's first flight in California, he accepted a new job with a company called Boom in Centennial, CO. He moved there and brought Max with him, but Christine had to stay in California until the show she was directing ran it's final production on stage. So we were in charge of Max while Dad went to work. Our stay was for a two week period.
One of the highlights of this trip for me was a trip at dusk along the Cathy Johnson Trail. Chris, Max, Sharon and I all participated carrying flashlights to help navigate the dirt path. We arrived at the trailhead around 8:35PM and started our hike. We immediately heard a Killdeer calling on the hillside. Seemed liked a strange place for the Killdeer but nevertheless it was there.
We kept hiking and saw some eye shine which turned at to be two coyotes. Max was a little nervous but quickly got over it. Finally, a 9PM we heard the call of my target bird, the Common Poorwill. It called for about ten minutes and then flew directly overhead. Awesome! On the way back to the car there were some larger type bats but I not certain of their identity.
The next day we headed to Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR in search of a Badger and a Black-footed Ferret among the Prairie Dog towns. Both would be life mammals for us. Well, we found neither, but got a few birds while driving the loop.
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| Western Kingbird |
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| Western Meadowlark |
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A few days later, we took Max up to the summit of Mt Evans, which is the highest paved road in the USA. At 14,420' the landscape is quite rugged and also treeless. This is American Pipit country.
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| Tundra at top of Mt Evans - Pipit country |
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| Just had to throw in another Mountain Goat picture |
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| American Pipit on breeding grounds |
While descending the mountain we stopped for lunch and found a few more things of interest.
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| Broad-tailed Hummingbird at 7,500' elevation |
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| Some species of Odonata |
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| View from Restaurant |
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The next few days I just birded by myself in the mornings visiting many different areas. One was the Platte Canyon Reservoir where I found some Hooded Mergansers (no photos taken) which were reported as being rare at this time of year.
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| Common Mergansers(not rare) |
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| Belted Kingfisher |
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| Immature Cliff Swallow |
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| Lesser Goldfinch |
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Towards the end of our stay, I visited Roxborough State Park. This is a very popular park due to great scenery and hiking trails. On the entrance road I heard than spotted a Northern Bobwhite. I was attending a scheduled bird walk and told the guide about the bobwhite. She told me it has never been reported, so I showed her the photos I had. She didn't have an answer for that.
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| Northern Bobwhite |
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| Great scenery |
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| Prairie Falcon- one of three |
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| Lazuli Bunting |
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| Lesser Goldfinch |
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| View of one of the great trails |
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| Black-headed Grosbeak |
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| Western Tanager |
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| Female Lazuli Bunting |
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| More great views |
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| Western Tanager- You never get enough photos of this guy |
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| I'll let the expects ID this one |
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| This one also |
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| Mule Deer-check the size of those ears |
Finally the last full day in Colorado, Sharon and I headed to the higher elevations once more. We climbed to over 8,000' in search of American Three-toed Woodpecker. I have only seen this bird once before in Alaska. I really wanted this bird for the lower 48. We had tried for this guy about five days ago in the same area with no luck. This was going to be our last chance. We drove around for awhile and picked a spot to pull off the side of the road. I got out of the car and listened for the call notes. Instead, we heard a woodpecker drumming on a distant tree. I walked down the road about a tenth of a mile trying to track down the drummer and hoping it was the right species. There were Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers and both Red-naped and Williamson's Sapsucker in this area. Finally, I was able to spot the culprit. Not only one, but a female and a young bird following the female around begging for food.
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| American Three-toed Woodpecker |
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| Young American Three-toed Woodpecker |
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| Note yellow patch on crown. Immature in background |
Other birds in the area were Red Crossbills, Pine Siskin, Hermit Thrush and Mountain Chickadees.
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| Pine Siskin |
Success! Now I could go home having fulfilled my objective.
About two weeks before we arrived, birders had found a Common Ringed Plover here. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, it was long gone. Instead, we had to settle for Clark's Grebe, Greater Roadrunner, Allen's Hummingbirds, Black-necked Stilts, White and Brown Pelicans, Spotted Towhees and Orange-crowned Warblers.
