Colorado Jackpot!! 12 Lifers added

  Extreme birding at its finest!!  New state, new elevations, new habitats produces new birds. So how did we end up here? The last 3 years Sam and I have visited the lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas in March, and got to do some rare bird chasing with Red & Louise Gambill. In 2013 we invited JK with us, and the birdteam was formed. It's getting harder to chase rarities in LRGV unless you winter there, so I wanted to find a place with more bang for the buck for a birding trip.  Last year I started following Big Year Birder Jay Lehman http://jaysbigyear2013.blogspot.com/ during his run through 733+2 species in a year. I noticed in May 2013, he had a great trip to Colorado, and got several first of year(FOYs) birds for him, that turned out to be many LIFE birds for me. So the location was set.

                                                  

My favorite road in the Centennial State

  This post will be of the 12 new life birds I got, while the next post will be more about the trip, locations, FOYs, and good times. I started the trip with ABA#539 Olive-Sided Flycatcher from 5/13/14 that I got on Tuesday earlier that week. Starting on Friday 5/16 til Sunday 5/18/2014 I saw;

#540 American Dipper--Morrison, CO--Bear Creek
#541 Lazuli Bunting--Red Rocks Trading Post
#542 Bullocks Oriole--Red Rocks Trading Post
#543 Black-Billed Magpie--Red Rocks Trading Post
#544 Mountain BlueBird--Waunita Lek, 20miles East of Gunnison, CO
#545 Gunnison Sage-Grouse--Waunita Lek, 20miles East of Gunnison, CO
#546 White-Tailed Ptarmigan--Loveland Pass on Route 6
#547 Townsend Solitaire--Genesee Park, Golden, CO
#548 Plumbeous Vireo--Crow Valley Campground--Briggsdale, CO
#549 Common Poorwill--Crow Valley Campground--Briggsdale, CO
#550 Cordilleran Flycathcer--Crow Valley Campground--Briggsdale, CO
#551 McCown's Longspur--Pawnee Grasslands

Let the birding begin!! We landed at 7:15am MST on Friday, and before lunch, I got the American Dipper. Ebird.org had posted a report of a nesting pair, under the pedistrian footbridge over the creek. And sure enough . . .

Dippin'

#540

 





 





Next, up to Red Rocks Park & Amphitheatre and the Trading Post. Again, Ebird.org had some nice reports from both places, so we stopped by. Plus, the actual red rocks that stick out of the ground are amazing. It is worth a visit and it's free. At the Trading Post, through the gift shop, there is a nice back yard area, with feeders, trees, water feature, and giant red rocks. Many birds fly through, so just sit back with your camera and BOOM!!  . . .

#541

Male(left) Female(right) Lazuli Bunting

#542

Male Bullock's Oriole

Then . . .                                                                       
























We went over to the amphitheater to look down onto the stage, and up at Ship Rock. There had been reports of Prarie Falcon that nests up in the rock. And sure enough, we could hear the calling of the bird, but it never came out for flight. So without being 100% sure, we bounced on ticking that life bird. It will have to wait until next time. Giving me a reason--to travel the county. Down in the lower parking lot of Ship Rock, we spotted a great view a Black-Billed Magpie, one of many seen during the trip.
 

#543

 Now, we where making great time, and had seen a lot of birds. We stared southwest on the famous Route 285 from Red Rocks down to Salida, CO then west on Route 50 to Gunnison for the night. We stopped at the place for the grouse in the morning, just to see what it looked like with daylight, and if we where lucky, a sighting. No grouse that evening, but I did get my last life BlueBird species, the Mountain BlueBird. Unlike other bluebird species, Mountain Bluebirds often hover while foraging; they also pounce on their insect prey from an elevated perch

#544

The next morning, we awoke at 4am MST, for a 20 mile drive to be back at the Waunita Lek for the dawn display of the Gunnison Sage-Grouse(#545). Jay Lehman got the grouse the same time last year on May 15th. We were 2 days later, but intially had no luck. It was a large field with foothills about 2 miles away. We did not see any grouse, just the sounds of Wilson's Snipe tickling calls. A second car arrived later, an Italian birder here in the U.S. for 5 weeks. He had no idea, but wanted to see the birds too. Then, another car with Colorado plates shows up with 2 more birders, great locals, just what we need! After 15 minutes, the CO birder moves up to the front to look at the farther foothill, and he says . . "I've got the birds!!"  Great news for us. I ended up viewing 2 males far away on the foothill through the scope, but could not take any pictures. It's the only one I didn't get a snap at.      

Birding a 5am, it's a regular thing

Yeah!! LifeBird for #TSB

Wow, that was LUUCKY, almost dipped on that one. With that adventure over with, we headed back to Roadway Inn for free Continental breakfast. The owner was very nice, and happy we had seen the bird, many birders come and stay at the Roadway Inn just for this spectacle.  With that we decided to head back up route 285, then north on route 9(see first pic) through Breckenridge, then east onto route 6 to Loveland Pass. Here we are at 12,000 feet, and there's snow everywhere on the pass. It wasn't too cold, but windy, and a very sunny day.  Many reports on Ebirg.org and from Jay's big year blog, that this IS the place to see . . .

#546 White-tailed Ptargiman

Male(bottom) Female(top)

Holy crap, we just got two Code 2 birds the same day. This is the reason we came to Colorado!!!  Now what??  We where still a couple of hours ahead of schedule, so we refereed to Jay's blog again. He had mentioned stopping at a place on the way back to Denver off I-70. So we decide to stop at Golden, CO at Genesee Park. We dropped down a dirt road, into the park, and went all the way down to the last parking area. We got out and walked down the path, but didn't get too much, a Broad-Tailed Humming bird was very neat, and lifer for Sammy and JK. Back at the car area, we saw this mockingbird type bird, but they don't have mockingbirds at this elevation.  Closer look, white eye-ring, buffy wing patch, long tail . . BAM . . . a Townsend's Solitaire

#547 Towsend's Solitaire

What a neat bird, this was another lucky tick. There had been no good reports of this bird, and we where not even suppose to stop here. Turns out, this location was good for Pygmy Nuthatch and Mountain Chickadees too.  So that was it for day 2; 3 more great life birds, including those Code 2s. We stayed the night in Brighton, CO for an early drive to the Pawnee Grasslands.
  The initial plan was to visit the grasslands just for one bird, the McCown's Longspur, which should be an automatic there. But during the weeks that lead up to our trip, a new place popped near the entrance. Migration was still moving in Colorado, and the Crow Valley Campground gained fame this spring with a Painted Redstart from 5/1-5/3. Turns out, this middle of nowhere campground is really great for birding, lots of warblers, tanagers, and empidx. There is a creek/stream that runs through, and the water was high, but a lot of birds where around it. Including this . . .

Plumbeous Vireo

#548

In 1997, ABA split the Solitary Vireo into three species, the Blue-Headed(East); the Plumbeous(Rockies); the Cassin's(West). Since I get Blue-Headed in Ohio each spring, that just leaves the Cassin's left for  lifer. Next thing we know, where walking around a camp site, and a guy comes up to us and says, "Hey, don't go further this way, there's a . . .

Common Poorwill

Camouflage #549

Common Poorwill

                            Again, holy crap!!! Never thought I would see this bird, didn't even know I need this as a life bird, totally unexpected. Now it's smiley time:) They don't call them Goatsuckers for nothing. On the way back to the car, we decided to walk to the beginning part of the trail, and got Western Tanager, Black-Headed Grosbeak, and this empidx. . .

Cordilleran Flycatcher

#550

                   

Found mostly east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges, the Cordilleran Flycatcher is a common small yellowish flycatcher of shaded forests. Nearly identical in appearance to the Pacific-slope Flycatcher, the two forms were formerly considered to be the same species, known as the "Western Flycatcher." Split in 1990.

I saw the "Western" in 1986 at the ABA convention in Arizona with Red&Louise. I consider that the Pacific-Slope Flycatcher split seen now. So that leaves just one bird left, and the only one we came here to see . ! . ! .

McCown's Longspur

Best pic, Male in breeding plumage

#551

And this was the only ONE that we saw, just a couple of seconds on the Pawnee Grassland's road to no where. We probably could of chased further around looking for more, but as the Lucky Gambill motto says "One Bird, One Time"
















So with that concludes the winning 12 numbers in tonight's Colorado Bird Lottery, please tune in to later posts for trip round up.

Next Up: Colorado in 60 hours, and 778 miles