Spent late Friday and Saturday birding with my wife in northeastern Colorado with the specific intent to visit the chickens on the prairie in Yuma County.
-- Decided to leave work early on Friday afternoon and stopped by the Crow Valley Campground. Crow Creek was flowing but not much else of note except for 50+ EUROPEAN STARLING near the entrance (closed to vehicles by the way), 30+ AMERICAN GOLDFINCH, 7 AMERICAN ROBINS and 3 TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE.
Spent the night in Sterling and headed east before the sun (sunrise at about 6:40 AM as we were just west of Holyoke). Used the description provided in the Colorado Birding Society's Locations by County to visit Site 7 in Yuma County (Yuma County Road 45). The description was 'spot on' and we were able to observe a total of 9 GREATER PRAIRIE-CHICKENS (a lifer) with binoculars and scope between about 7:45 and 8:30 AM (6 were on the lek and we scared up a pair and a single on the way in and out along the County road).
Drove into Wray, CO from the east and was completely stopped by 19 WILD TURKEYS crossing the road just east of town. After grabbing a bite to eat in town we headed west to Sandsage State Wildlife Area where we had 3 FOY RING-NECKED PHEASANTS, a FOY EASTERN BLUEBIRD pair, a FOY RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER, and a FOY Empid (flycatching [what else] over the North Fork of the Republican River - never made a sound but flew off when I attempted to get close enough for a photograph).
We made our way south to the Bonny Area and Hale ponds - pretty uneventful. The most excitement here was found just north of Hale where the flowing South Fork of the Republican River crosses County Road L1.5. In this area we observed 15 WILD TURKEYS (in the field south of the river), 500+ RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS (immediately south of the river on the ground [west side of the road] and in the big tree [east side of the road]), and 20+ AMERICAN WIDGEON in the river itself (west side of the road).
About 4:00 PM we started back for Denver along HWY 34 through Joes, Cope, Anton, and Lindon where we counted 5 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, 3 RED-TAILED HAWKS and 1 FERRUGINOUS HAWK on fence posts and telephone/power poles.
Our last stop before Denver was the Last Chance rest area. We arrived about 5:30 PM and spent about an hour. Surprises here were a FOY RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET (in the dense brush on the SE corner of pond) and a lone (yes single, hard to believe) FOY CEDAR WAXWING flycatching in the tree tops overhead (only lasted a short time before heading southwest). We also spotted a FOY GREAT-HORNED OWL on the north side of HWY 34 and west bank of the next major drainage east of Last Chance as we headed home about 6:30.
All total, a long but rewarding birding day.
Gary and Lora Witt
Greenwood Village, CO
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