[cobirds] Larimer County Big Day 5/24

Sorry this report is a little late, but here is a recap of a Larimer County Big Day that Austin Hess, Nick Komar, and David Wadeon did on May 24th attempting to reach 200 species in a single county.  Nick and I had a decent scouting day in Rocky Mountain National Park the previous day so with the migrants around we were hopeful that 200 was within reach.  Around 11:55 PM the night before we figured that the park service wanted to make us earn our first few birds of the day by closing the three miles of Trail Ridge Road between Many Parks Curve and Rainbow Curve where we had found several decent birds including White-tailed Ptarmigan, Dusky Grouse, and American Three-toed Woodpecker during scouting.  Luckily we had the whole morning to devise our strategy for first light.  Before first light hit we added Northern Saw-whet and Flammulated Owl in the park and Common Poorwill down near Estes Park.  Around 3:30 we arrived at our decision to skip Bear Lake and park at Many Parks Curve and walk as much of the closed section of Trail Ridge Road (not one trace of snow in the mile and a half we walked) as we could to try for our targets.  The birds woke up a little later than we had hope for, but we wound up picking up all of our targets (American Three-toed Woodpecker, Dusky Grouse, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Townsend's Solitaire, and Brown Creeper) except White-tailed Ptarmigan.  The walking did allow us to pick up several Pine Grosbeaks which we missed during scouting.  After returning to the car about 30 minutes behind schedule we sped down to Hidden Valley where we heard Golden-crowned Kinglet and saw a Band-tailed Pigeon while we tried scoping for Ptarmigan above the tree line.  I don't know why we thought that was a good idea.  After that we ran to a patch of willows along the main road where there is a singing Fox Sparrow and Wilson's Warbler.  On the drive down to Estes we ticked Western Bluebird, White-breasted Nuthatch, and Cassin's Finch.  Once in Estes Park we added Brown-capped Rosy-Finch, Evening Grosbeak, and Red Crossbill.  At Lake Estes we had our first experience with rare migrants cooperating quickly with the Magnolia Warbler showing itself within a few minutes.  Picking up Ring-necked Duck on the lake helped us save time later in the day.  After hearing Savannah and Brewer's Sparrows at other spots we headed down the canyon, still about 30 minutes behind schedule. 

At the bottom of the Big Thompson Canyon we picked up White-throated Swift and American Dipper but missed Blue Grosbeak. The drive up through Masonville gave us Pinyon Jay and some more common lower elevation birds.  The entrance to Bobcat Ridge had singing Rock and Canyon Wren and the drive towards the top of Rist Canyon produced Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and Lazuli Bunting.  We also picked out a Cordilleran Flycatcher song while driving.  Our first stop in Rist Canyon boosted us over 100 species with Hammond's Flycatcher, Ovenbird, Red-naped Sapsucker and a few other species within a five minutes.  On the drive down the canyon we added a pair of Northern Goshawks, Western Wood-Pewee, and a Plumbeous Vireo.  At the bottom of the canyon it took us fifteen minutes to spot the Golden Eagle on the cliffs at Watson Lake due to the road closure into the lake.  Luckily while scoping we added Cooper's Hawk and Western Scrub-Jay.  Our first stop on the river at Lion's Park and Butterfly Woods was pretty slow but we picked up a bonus Red-headed Woodpecker.  We tried to cut down on the time we were behind schedule, but a ten minute stop at the gravel ponds on Taft Hill gave us the breeding Hooded Merganser complete with babies.  We ran through Lee Martinez Park where we picked up Veery, Wood Duck, and a Trail's Flycatcher that looked like an Alder.  Instead of sticking with our plan to run up to the northern part of the county we decided to knock out Chimney Swift by driving through downtown on the way to Prospect Ponds where we refound a Blackpoll Warbler, but didn't add too much else.  On the drive out to the interstate a quick stop at Running Deer gave us Great Egret and Bald Eagle plus a bonus Northern Harrier that would allow us to cut out all birding east of I-25 later in the afternoon. 

Our plan to bird CR 5 in the northern part of the county was delayed by a heavy rain storm, but we waited it out by adding waterbirds at Hamilton Reservoir.  Although we didn't find any rarities, the new waterfowl put our list over 150 by about 1:30 in the afternoon.  Once the small storm moved east we hit CR 5 where we quickly picked up Loggerhead Shrike, Burrowing Owl, and McCown's Longspur.  With most of our ducks out of the way we were able to skip more spots and get back on schedule.  A stop for an interesting hawk (which turned out to be a pale-headed Red-tailed) had a singing Grasshopper Sparrow and Poudre Reservoir #4 had a gorgeous White-rumped Sandpiper.  A farm pond south of Wellington produced our first Wilson's Phalarope of the day and we were set to arrive at Timnath Reservoir 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  Arriving at Timnath we were on pace to hit 200 species if we could keep up our pace of 10 new birds per hour of daylight.  Shortly after getting out of the car we added Yellow-headed Blackbird, Marsh Wren, Franklin's Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, and Bufflehead.  After a few more minutes we added Black-crowned Night-Heron and decided to move further down the road.  Dave pointed out a tern with a gray belly that turned out to be our biggest rarity of the day, the Arctic Tern.  Before we left Timnath we picked up Pied-billed Grebe for bird #170 as well as Great-tailed Grackle and Red-necked Phalarope.  Our hopes for 200 were high with over 3.5 hours of daylight left an only 28 birds away.  Fossil Creek Reseroir changed those hopes with Clark's Grebe being our only new pickup.  Our first stop at Boyd Lake did not produced any new birds, and our hopes of a huge day in a single county began to fade even more.  Sean Walter's neighborhood gave us a little boost by quickly scoring the Chestnut-sided Warbler, but we missed the Northern Mockingbird.  Returning to Boyd Lake with 175 species and only an hour or so of daylight we were just hoping to scrap out 180 for the day, and we only added Sanderling and Semipalmated Sandpiper.  After 20 hours of birding we decided to eat a dinner and look for nighthawks in the fading light, but they did not cooperate.  After dark we picked up Sora, Virginia Rail, and Great Horned Owl to round out our total to 180.

Good Birding!

Andy Bankert

Fort Collins, CO

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