The Centennial State

What are you doing this weekend? Want to go to Colorado? Why yes!!  Great, let's catch the 6am flight Friday out of CVG to DEN via Frontier airlines. http://www.flyfrontier.com/. We've landed at 7:15am MST. Now it's time to get the rental, which one do we take??

Kia Sorento

We have plans to stay the night in Gunnision, CO some 224 miles away, but over 4 hours of drivetime. We're going to heading through some high mountain passes on this day. Our first stop was southwest Denver, the town of Morrison to get the American Dipper. Tick! Then up 2 miles to the beautiful Red Rocks Parks&Amphitheater. What a place to visit or see a concert. They where even filming a commerical there.

Pearl Jam anyone?

JK&Sam with Ship Rock in back

CrossFit

In Morrison, before the dipper, we got this great owlette. No parent owls around. In the parking lot, we got this Western-Scrub Jay. I saw a couple last year in California. Very pretty. Plus, I just got the Florida-Scrub Jay in March in Florida(see earlier post). The scrub jay was split in 1996 into 3 sub-species. I still only need the Island-Shrub Jay for a lifer.

Juvenile Great Horned Owl

Western-Scrub Jay

Plenty of Western Kingbirds around in Colorado.Very common.

Western-Kingbird

14 footer

The drive down SR285 is fantastic. Highly recommend it for anyone visiting the state. The state has 53 mountains over 14,000 feet in elevation. Sawatch Range has many of the highest mountains.
We stopped at Monarchs Pass, 12,000 feet. Yea, it snowed there last week.

On Saturday afternoon, we drove back up SR285, then split off to SR9 north through downtown Breckenridge. Beautiful ski town. Can't image what this place would look like during ski season. We took that up to The Grand Army of the Rebuplic Highway, Route 6. We stopped at Loveland Pass to get the WTPT and these great pics. Wish we could of spent more time there.

Life Bird #546 in this pic

#TSB

Saturday night, we went to bed early in Brighton, CO after a celebratory life bird Sonic milkshake.  We traveled up to Pawnees Grasslands on Sunday morning, and then headed back to Denver for lunch, and Cherry Creek Reservoir for the Rock Wren. By now is was 4pm and ready for check-in at DEN for our 7pm flight back to CVG. In the end, this turned out to be one the greatest trips ever for me and the guys. Thanks again. Please comment our where our #birdteam2015 should go next year. Ideas!?!

Trip Stats:
60 hours in Colorado
778 miles driven in a KIA
24 MPG
112 total species
49 FOYs--Notables
(CinnamonTeal,Clark&WstrnGrebe,WhitefacedIbis,BroadtailedHumbrd,SaysPhoebe,
JuniperTitmouse,PygmyNuthatch,YBC,Townswarbler,GreentailedTowhee,Brewerspw,Larkspw,Larkbuning,WstrnTanager,BlackheadGrosbeak,BrewrsBlkbird,CassinsFinch)
12 LIFERS, now at ABA#551

Next up: Ohio summer birding

Townsend Warble, male

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

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

24 Hrs of Birding

We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass!! A little friendly competition we started here last year.  You see, for the last couple of years, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has had a team that does a BIG DAY every year. In the name of conversation, a team of 5 members have raced around a 400-500 mile triangle in south eastern Texas to try and see as many species in 24 hours. Sun up to sun set. They have set some great records and seen some really neat birds during spring migration. In fact, they got 264 in 2011 and 294 total species in 2013--an all time best record. So it got me to thinking.

What if we had a team, that drove around like crazy, walked miles through parks and paths, and birded all day. And the idea was born.

#TSB 2014

24 hours of birding!! Last year, me and my friends Sam and JK went up to Magee Marsh during http://biggestweekinamericanbirding.com/ in May, and got 94 total species. We where known as Team Dickcissel in 2013. This year, new name, new locations and new birds for Team Snow Blunting(TSB)!! We even had custom T-shirts made.
   Since we live in Columbus, we decided to start our 24 hour clock on Monday May12th at 2pm, at Big Island Wildlife area, then north to Killdeer plains. We extended our range this year to cover more areas during the birding timeframe. We added great new birds this year at Big Island like Common Gallinule, Sora rail, Bald Eagle, Bobolink and Ring-Necked Pheasant. At Killdeer we got Dunlin, Short-Billed Dowichter, Trumpeter Swans, and Brown Thrasher. We ended up with 61 total species for the first day, and headed to Freemont Travelodge to spend the night.

Male Ring-Necked Pheasant

Dunlin(black belly) & Long-Billed Dowichter

Sunrise on Lake Erie

We left Freemont at 6am for traditional breakfast at McDonald's and headed up SR19 north to SR2. Once you see the sun come up and the nuclear cooling tower on the right, make a left on SR 2, and a couple miles done on your right is entrance to Magee Marsh. We always try to start at 7am in the west parking lot/entrance to the boardwalk. That is where the team picture was taken above. You just walk and take your time as you make your way across the boardwalk. It is truly a magical moment and deserves to be experienced at least once in your life. Magee Marsh is one of the best places to witness migration. The birds are so close to you, 10-30 feet away at most.

Magee Boardwalk

Because of technology, it makes it even better and funner to attend the Biggest Week. On Twitter, just follow @biggestweek and @ONWRA and fellow birders tweet what bird they just saw, and what number on the boardwalk they saw it. So you can be at the beginning of the boardwalk at #1 and get a tweet that an Olive-Sided Flycatcher is at #7 on the boardwalk. So you briskly walk down to #7, then there up in a tree . . .

Olive-Sided Flycatcher Lifer #539

This was the last easy ABA code 1, of eastern flycatchers that I had never seen before. I think it's because in the last 20 years, their range has increased more commonly in to Ohio during migration. Wow, what a bird and what a great day to bird.
TSB actually had a flycatcher sweep that day of Acadian, Alder, Willow, Least, Yellow-Belly, E. Wood Pewee, E Phoebe, Great Crested, E. Kingbird and the Olive-Sided. First time ever!! I think that's because we visited a week later this year. So more birds had shown up.

Eastern Screech Owl(gray morph)

Sleeping Common Nighthawk

We didn't get a lot of warbler pictures because the birds move so fast, and are too close at times. The team ended up with 21 warbler species including good ones like Ovenbird, N. Waterthrush, Mourning, Hooded, Cape May, Blackburnian, Blackpoll, Black-throated Blue female, Canada and Wilson's Warblers.

Male Bay-Breasted Warbler

Male Chestnut-Sided Warbler

   

We spotted other first of year(FOYs) birds at Magee, Ottawa NWR auto tour, Metzger Marsh and the Boss Unit. Those birds included Yellow & Black-Billed Cuckoos(lifer for Sam&JK), Osprey, American Woodcock, Black Necked Stilts, Henslow's--Swamp--& Lincoln Sparrows.

Male Henslow's Sparrow

Brad w/ Jay Lehman

At the end of 2pm on Tues, back at the Magee boarwalk, we where winding down, and looking for a reported female Golden-Winged Warbler, when we spotted the rare birder, the great Jay Lehman, retiree from Cincinnati, that just completed a big year in 2013. Just like the movie, The Big Year(2011), Jay drove, flew, boated and walked around the entire ABA area all year, and finished at the 4th place of all time Big Years with 733 + 2 provisional species. WOW!! Holy cow. Jay in one of only 14 birders that have ever seen over 700 species in a calendar year.  Check out his blog at http://jaysbigyear2013.blogspot.com/.  Jay has been birding a long time, and has meet/birded with my grandparent Red&Louise in south Texas, and my father Buddy the artist. So yet again, another reason for me to do this blog, to connect the past with the present and to fulfill the Gambill journey.

Jay Lehman actually inspired TSB from his big year. Our team decided to go to Colorado in middle May 2014 to "Retrace the Steps" that Jay did last year. From his blog, we created a great itinerary to bird as hard and fast as we could in 60 hours in Colorado. More about our Colorado trip next blog.

Team Snow Blunting ended the 24 hours of Birding with 120 total species seen/heard by at least 2 members, from 2pm Monday to 2pm Tues. I got 1 lifer and Sam/JK got 2 lifers on this trip. Now at the end of the day, we where exhuasted.

Next up:  Colorado or Bust!! Lifer, lifers, lifers . . .

Spring Migration is here

Well, it's about that time. After mid April, the early spring migration starts here in Columbus. It is a great chance to get out and see the flowers blooming and many different species of warblers start coming back from down south. 

Common Blue Bell

There are several great spots to visit on the north east side of Columbus.  Woodside Green Park in Gahanna is great. It is located along the Big Walnut Creek, which feeds into the Scioto River. It also connects Academy Park on the east side of the creek. You can park and walk right onto the path, cross the creek and back in less than 30 minutes. 

Hyacinthoides non-scripta is a bulbous perennial plant, found in Atlantic areas from north-western Spain to the British Isles, and also frequently used as a garden plant. It is known in English as the common bluebell or simply bluebell. In spring, H. non-scripta produces a nodding, one-sided inflorescence of 5–12 tubular, sweet-scented violet–blue flowers, with strongly recurved tepals, and 3–6 long, linear, basal leaves.

Some of the birds you can get at Woodside Creek include the Northern Parula, Yellow-Throated Warbler, Blue-Headed & Yellow-Throated Vireos.  But what about this guy??  Your local Barred Owl family.  Both male and female live in the woods, and can be seen off the path. Just listen for the hoots, or if the crows are around, they will be harassing the family often.

Barred Owl

This is a picture of the female Barred Owl. It has a pale face with dark rings around the eyes, a yellow beak and brown eyes. It is the only typical owl of the eastern United States which has brown eyes; all others have yellow eyes. The upper parts are mottled gray-brown. The underparts are light with markings; the chest is barred horizontally while the belly is streaked vertically. The legs and feet are covered in feathers up to the talons.^[3] The head is round and lacks ear tufts, a distinction from the slightly smaller Short-eared Owl, which favors more open, marginal habitats.

 Another great place to visit in late April is North Hoover Reservoir Boardwalk and Area N.  Last year, Columbus Audubon did a bird walk there, so on the same weekend in 2014, I decided to visit to see if I could see the same birds. Sure enough, like clockwork, the early migrants where there.  Since the boardwalk was closed for repairs, Area N next to it is best. It is just like swamp thing, a low marshy area with standing water and large trees. This location is best know for the Prothonotary Warbler nesting sites/boxes. Fellow CA member Charlie Bombaci leads the annaul project of putting up over 200 nesting boxes for this species, and the results in over 185 pairs of Prothonotary Warbles both in boxes and natural nesting sites.

 

Male Prothonotary Warbler

 The Prothonotary Warbler has an olive back with blue-grey wings and tail, yellow underparts, a relatively long pointed bill and black legs. The adult male has a bright orange-yellow head. Females and immature birds are duller and have a yellow head. In flight from below, the short, wide tail has a distinctive two-toned pattern, white at the base and dark at the tip. It breeds in hardwood swamps in extreme southeastern Ontario and eastern United States. It winters in the West Indies, Central America and northern South America.  It is the only eastern warbler that nests in natural or artificial cavities, sometimes using old Downy Woodpecker holes. The male often builds several incomplete, unused nests in his territory; the female builds the real nest. It lays 3–7 eggs. The preferred foraging habitat is dense, woody streams, where the Prothonotary Warbler forages actively in low foliage, mainly for insects and snails. The song of this bird is a simple, loud, ringing sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet-sweet.
Other good birds to see at Area N are the Warbling Vireo, Red-Headed Woodpecker, Northern Parula and Yellow-Throated Warbler.  So stop by north Hoover/Galena boardwalk next time. Just watch out for the local fishermen.

Next up:  24 Hours of Birding!!