Birding for Life

The morning of April 20 started by driving around a Grand Junction residential neighborhood in search of Gambel’s Quail.  While we were stopped in the road in front of a house, the owner came out and talked to one of the guides.  We could not hear the discussion, but the outcome was clear – we were invited into his backyard.  The yard was perfect with several well-placed feeders and I soon had another life bird – a Juniper Titmouse that came in for suet.

Juniper Titmouse, a pinyon-juniper habitat specialist found only in the West.

We had a pleasant conversation with the generous homeowner-birder and quickly discovered that the coincidence didn’t end with our vans randomly stopping in front of a birder’s house.  He shared stories about his parents’ international birding trips with us.  Together, we were able to figure out from what he remembered that his parents had traveled with Field Guides and its founders many years ago.  Shortly after saying goodbye to our new friend, we had a good look at several Gambel’s Quail.

Next on the agenda was more incredible scenery at Colorado National Monument.

Each layer of rock was created at a different time as the relentless forces of water, ice, wind, thunderstorms, and heat formed the colorful spires and steep canyon walls. At the bottom is Precambrian rock which is over 1.7 billion years old.

The birding at Colorado National Monument was pretty good, too.  We all had excellent looks at a perennial birder favorite, Black-throated Sparrow.

Black-throated Sparrow

We also saw White-throated Swifts, Aeronautes saxatalis, one of the fastest flying birds in North America.  The generic name of this species, Aeronautes, which means “sky sailor,” is particularly apt for these birds that achieve breathtaking speeds and then quickly change direction with lightning-fast precision as they streak between steep canyon walls.  They were too fast for me, but Derek was able to get the photo below as a swift whizzed quickly by.

White-throated Swift. Photo by Derek Hudgins.

Perhaps most exciting was the very early (April 20) Gray Vireo that Cory found on the Devil’s Kitchen Trail.  We all saw the bird, one of the ten earliest sightings ever for Colorado.

Birding on the beautiful Devil’s Kitchen Trail in Colorado National Monument.

That afternoon we birded some reservoirs, but 20+ knot winds hampered our ability to see much.  The weather was so bad that I gave up and waited in the van part of the time.  However, we still had some good sightings, particularly when we were expertly guided precisely to a Prairie Falcon spot that also had Wyoming Ground Squirrels.

One of the many Pronghorn that we saw throughout the trip. Photo by Derek Hudgins.

Our tour was nearing the end with only two days and two grouse species left.  Sharp-tailed Grouse also use the lek mating system, but it’s harder to find a reliable lek.  On the morning of April 21, we visited a roadside lek where the grouse had been observed just a week earlier by the first Field Guides Grouse Tour, but we did not have their luck.  We could hear the birds displaying on the other side of the ridgeline, but it took quite a while to find three distant birds.  While searching for the grouse, we were serenaded by a group of five Sandhill Cranes.  As we left the area, we finally had a good look at a Sharp-tailed Grouse on the side of the road.

Like all the other Sharp-tailed Grouse we saw, this one wasn’t displaying either.

Another side-of-the-road bird that pleased us all was a Rough-legged Hawk perched on top of a telephone pole as we neared Walden.  We checked into our hotel, had lunch, and then headed out for more birding.  Walden is smaller and has a more rugged feel than the upscale ski towns that we stayed in for much of the tour.  Its remote location draws visitors for camping, fishing, hunting and wildlife viewing.  The hotels and restaurants here were basic, but we enjoyed the quiet change of pace.  In this town that advertises itself as the “Moose Viewing Capital of Colorado,” we did see a moose just outside of town.  And, a Golden Eagle!

Rough-legged Hawk

The afternoon brought rain, so we took cover at the Colorado State Forest Moose Visitor Center.  The birds were not deterred by the weather and we had a wonderful time watching them from the covered patio at the back of the Visitor Center.  I think that everyone’s favorite birds here were the Cassin’s Finches, present in good numbers and cooperative photographic subjects.

Male Cassin’s Finch

Female Cassin’s Finch

Our last day of birding, April 22, was one of the best.  We started early again to visit a spectacular Greater Sage-Grouse lek which was close to the road and gave us great views.  These birds were very different from the prairie-chickens, but just as impressive as we observed their ancient rituals.

Greater Sage-Grouse (male)

Sadly, this is another species of conservation concern. I wrote about the plight of the Greater Sage-Grouse in my story last year, Prairie Road Trip: 7,114 Miles, 27 Days, 171 Avian Species. But, this day we just enjoyed the birds. Many words come to mind when watching the big males trying to impress the girls – majestic, comical, obscene.

Displaying male Greater Sage-Grouse

Greater Sage-Grouse (male). Note less white barring on the tail than on Gunnison Sage-Grouse.

The day would have been a success if we didn’t see another bird, but we were not done yet.  Stops at reservoirs and other spots on our drive gave us Barrow’s Goldeneye, Marbled Godwit, and Canada Jay as new trip birds.  We headed to Genesee Mountain Park near Denver.  Our target here was Williamson’s Sapsucker and again we had great luck with a gorgeous adult male flying in to land almost over our heads.  The fog and drizzle prevented good photos, but we had excellent looks at this wonderful and much-wanted woodpecker.

On the trail to see Williamson’s Sapsucker. Photo by Derek Hudgins.

Our last birding stop was Robert A. Easton Regional Park to see a continuing rarity, a Neotropic Cormorant. The area around the lake at the park gave us 46 species of birds including a surprise Mew Gull and five new trip birds.  It was a nice review of many of the duck species we had seen during the previous 10 days.

It was an amazing tour.  We observed a total of 186 species of birds and 26 mammal species.  For the complete list, see Cory’s trip report for Field Guides.  But, Derek and I were not ready to go home yet.  We enjoyed our last dinner at a nice Italian restaurant near our Denver hotel and said goodbye to our wonderful guides, Doug Gochfeld and Cory Gregory, and the other trip participants.  And then we turned in for an early night because we had more birds to see the following day.  Watch for a story about our “Denver Days” bonus birding next.