We are requiring full payment within 8 days of emailing me for a reservation: piombino.pam@gmail.com. If I do not receive payment within the 8 days, your name will be put on the Wait List. If you have to cancel, there will be a $20.00 fee imposed. If you cancel less than three weeks before the event, the money will only be refunded if the spot can be filled, but there will still be a $20.00 fee. Please consider it a donation for the fine work that Boulder County Audubon does and how much work it is to arrange these trips and keep track of the attendees. Once you make a reservation, please, please get the pertinent information on your calendar to keep track of which trip(s) you have asked to participate in.
"Interludes With Nature": 2017
Oh, Those Odes!! Dragonflies, That Is
Ann Cooper and John Barr
Date: Friday, July 28 2017
4 SPOTS LEFT: Limited to 8 people
Donation: $40 per person
Dragonflies of the Order Odonata, are becoming ever more popular for study and viewing. These exquisite creatures delight us with their shimmering colors and dancing flights. Join our local experts, Ann and John, for a relaxing, slow-paced ramble around Sawhill and Walden Ponds or perhaps Pella Crossing. The end of July is at the height of the dragonfly season, with overlap between early and late season species. Expect to see many different families including damsels, spreadwings, darners, dashers, pondhawks, skimmers and meadowhawks. We might even get lucky and be graced by a clubtail or snaketail.
BCAS will provide a continental breakfast to begin this outing. Ann is the author of Dragonflies of the Colorado Front Range. John is a great naturalist and renown fly fisherman, particularly when it comes to anything aquatic. Bring your camera!
Banding Baby Barn Owls
Scott Rashid
Date: Evening, Late June to early July
FULL, WAIT LIST CLOSED, Limited to 10 people
Donation: $60.00
Back by popular demand: Three years ago, Scott Rashid of the Center for Avian Research and Rehabilitation Institute, (CARRI), embarked on an experiment. Would there be more Barn Owls in Boulder County if there were more breeding cavities? With grants from Boulder County Audubon, Scott began installing nest boxes on private properties in northern Boulder County. Many folks were enchanted when he installed a web cam in one of them to document the owls raising their broods. In 2016, over 20 babies were banded.
Join us again in 2017 to watch Scott and his crew band the brood from one of these sites. Scott will talk about the biology of this enigmatic bird and where some of his bands have been recovered. You will have charming photo ops. Scott is also the author of Small Mountain Owls, The Great Horned Owl, an In-Depth Study and Northern Goshawk, The Gray Ghost. Stay for dinner and drinks provided by BCAS.
A Bird In The Hand
Alison Holloran
Date: June 10-11, 2017
3 SPOTS LEFT: Limited to 15 people
Donation: $80 per person
Join Alison Holloran, Executive Director of Audubon Rockies and a research scientist for this outstanding weekend filled with birds and beautiful natural areas. Heading north on Saturday, you will first stop at Soapstone Prairie, an exceptional prairie preserve on the border of Wyoming. On Sunday, you will leave the hotel for an early morning visit to a private ranch along the Little Laramie River that hosts the Laramie Bird Banding Station. There, you will have the opportunity to hold, "a bird in the hand". If you have never had a chance to intimately experience bird banding, we know you will be charmed. Alison will talk about the reasons to band, the cautions taken and what data is being gleaned from recoveries.
Boulder County Audubon will provide a gourmet picnic lunch while at Soapstone Prairie. You will be responsible for your hotel on Saturday night and all other meals. We will be staying at the Best Westerm Inn, Laramie, where a double is $98. Limited to 15 at $80 per person.
Rare Species of the Boulder Grasslands
and Ponderosa Pine Savanna.
Scott Severs
Date: July 2, 2017
2 SPOTS LEFT: Limited to 10 people
Donation: $40 per person
Boulder County has, for the most part, done an exceptional job conserving habitat and protecting, "species of special concern". Still, despite their sincere efforts, many species obligate to certain habitats are losing ground as the years pass.
Join Scott Severs, one of Boulder's best all-round naturalists, to look for some of these animals and explore their natural history and what we might do to assure their long term survival. While exploring Boulder County's endangered prairies and ponderosa pine savanna, we will look for birds such as the Lark Bunting, Lewis's Woodpecker and Burrowing Owl, and mammals such as the Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel. If you have never seen a Milk Snake, you will be amazed by its colorful beauty. You will also look for Skippers, a diminutive family of butterflies, some of whom are imperiled.
Limited to 10 people in three cars. Scott is a biologist and gifted teacher, with extensive knowledge of all things natural. A continental breakfast will start your day in the field. $40 per person.
April Love On A Lek:
Greater Prairie Chickens
John Vanderpoel
Date: April 8-9
FULL, WILL TAKE 2 ON A WAIT LIST: Limited to 10 people in 3 vehicles
Donation: $90.00
Join one of this Country's best known and most accomplished birdwatchers and naturalists, John Vanderpoel, for a weekend of prairie perambulation. You will visit a private cattle ranch which is a model for the Greater Prairie Chicken conservation with several active leks. This is an elusive bird that is best seen in the spring during courting and, "booming".
We will leave Boulder on the morning of the 8th, birding along the route. Later we will meet the ranch owner who will show us which lek we will visit early the next morning. After viewing the Prairie Chicken's wonderful mating rituals, we will return to our hotel in Wray for breakfast and then wend our way back to Boulder visiting hot spots along the route.
BCAS will serve a gourmet lunch on Friday afternoon. You are responsible for the other meals and for your hotel, which will be at the only lodging in Wray, CO, the Cobblestone Inn and Suites, approximately $100.
Same Creek: Infinitely More Beautiful
Ted Floyd
Date: Saturday, May 13, 2017
FULL, WILL TAKE 3 ON WAIT LIST: Limited to 10 people in three cars
Donation: $60 per person
The Wyoming Hereford Ranch, just over the Colorado state line, is one of our region's premier stopover sites for migrating birds. One goes there in spring actually expecting, not just praying, for rarities. Crow Creek--the same Crow Creek out by Briggsdale--flows through the ranch and provides life-support for all the migrants. The natural setting at the ranch is incomparable: If you know Crow Creek at Briggsdale, let's just say you'll be amazed at the lushness, verdure, and general beauty here.
Join Ted Floyd, Editor of the American Birding Association's Birding Magazine
, for a full day exploration of this lovely area during the height of spring migration. Ted is well known for his boundless enthusiasm, deep knowledge of all things avian and incredible birding ears.
A Visit To The Butcher's Shop
David Leatherman
Date: Saturday, May 27, 2017
4 SPOTS LEFT: Limited to 10 people in 3 cars
Donation: $60 per person
Butcher's Shop? Be prepared to enter the fascinating and often macabre world of the Loggerhead Shrike. This plains denizen, is also known as the, "butcher bird" for its habit of impaling prey on twigs, barbed wire or thorns. Indeed anything sharp enough will suffice because although this species has a classic raptorial bill, it lacks grasping talons to secure its prey.
Dave, a retired Colorado Forest Service entomologist, is a superb observer and another great all-round naturalist in our Interludes series. He has found shrike territories in Weld and Larimer Counties that will simply amaze you with the variety of insects, reptiles and mammals with which these Shrike have stocked their larders. You might find beetles, grassphoppers, lizards and birds which have all fallen victim to this predacious species. Learn of their natural history and enjoy a day on the prairie with an expert. Read more in Dave's column, The Hungry Bird in the Colorado Field Ornithologist's Quarterly, Vol. 49, No.4, Fall 2015, available on line.
BCAS will provide a gourmet lunch. Bring water, cameras and a sense of awe.
Kansas Odyssey: Cheyenne Bottoms and Quevira
National Wildlife Refuges
Carl Starace
Date: Fri.-Sun., April 21-23 2017
3 SPOTS LEFT: Limited to 11 people in three cars
Cost: $100 a person
Join us for this long weekend trip to two of the United States most breathtaking, vast and productive interior marshes. Cheyenne Bottoms is considered the most important shorebird migration stopover, hosting up to 90% of the North American waders in this 41,000 acre refuge. You will also find many passerines of eastern and western species in the refuge's hardwood forests.
Quivira, which is 20 miles away, is over 22,000 acres of prairie grass, saltwater marshes, sand dunes and timber. Over half a million birds stage there during their epic flights north.
Species to be expected: Ibis and Egrets, Marbled and Hudsonian Godwits, most of the Sandpipers including Upland and Stilt, endangered Piping as well as American and Golden Plovers, waterfowl and raptors, gulls and gallinules. In fact, over 320 species of birds have been documented between these two stellar sites.
You will leave Friday morning from Boulder for the 6.5 hour drive to Great Bend, KS. There will be stops along the way for lunch and birding if time allows. Carl would like to be at Quivira that evening to witness the dramatic return of birds that have been out foraging for the day. Saturday, you will spend the day at Cheyenne Bottoms with huge areas to explore. Sunday morning, it is back to Quivira, then the return trip.
You will be responsible for your hotel bill at approximately $80-100 per night at the Great Bend Holiday Inn Express, and all meals. Dress appropriately for all kinds of weather and wind.
Carl is a longtime, passionate bird watcher and experienced field trip leader, offering seasonal outings all year for Boulder County Audubon.
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