[cobirds] Sage thrashers at 11,500 RMNP

Cobirds:

              For Larimer County.  A walk along the Ute Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park on August 10th Sat. yielded the following:

 

Sage thrashers at 11,500 feet (approximately) - 2 - foraging in boulder field.  Nothing unusual to see sage thrashers this time of year, but above 11,000 is kinda strange.  I've never seen them up that high before.

 

Also between 11,400 and 11,600 feet on the Ute Trail:

Mountain bluebird - 10 - in family groups

Rock wren - 2 - singing

Horned lark - 17 - family groups; adults feeding immatures

American pipit - 6

Mountain chickadee - 1

Common raven - 21 - chasing and feeding on grasshoppers (hundreds of them);  looked kinda funny

Elk - 35 (bull with full set of antlers)

Marmot - 2

 

Prairie falcon - harassing ravens - at first I thought the falcon was trying to kill the ravens, but then I realized it was just having fun, or practicing.  The falcon out-flew, out-maneuvered, and out-smarted the ravens every which-way; coming in at mach 10 and then lightly touching them on the back with it's talons.   It would pull high speed maneuvers, jinking and turning.  The ravens didn't stand a chance.  I watched this for 30 minutes.  It didn't matter if the ravens were in the air or on the ground - the falcon tagged them every time.  Fun!

 

Alpine flowers are way past peak.  Upper Beaver Meadows is in full bloom though - with yellow being the predominate color: golden aster, goldenweed, yellow rabbitbrush, little yellow sunflower, yellow rubeckia, lavender horsemint, purple aster, mustard ssp;, lavender penstemon, harebells, and dozens of others.  Moisture in the park has been good.  There were small piles of hail in the alpine zone that look like snow.  The grasses and forbs are high down at lower elevations.

 

Ute Trail is along Trail Ridge Road above timer line.   Get there early to avoid the massive amounts of tourists flooding the park.

 

John T (Tumasonis),  Louisville CO

 

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