Well, it was cold. And humid. And it snowed all day. We called this year's Black Friday birding excursion The Great Colder Caper. Participation was down by close to 90% from last year, but the handful of us who ventured out on Boulder County's ice-packed roads had a nice time. I can (sort of) feel my toes again.
-- We started out at Walden Ponds, where we saw several small flocks of snow geese flying over. We had nice studies of a Harlan hawk, and we briefly glimpsed a large falcon--we thought it was a peregrine, but not sure.
Down by Boulder Creek at 75th Street, we saw another Harlan hawk and a nice ferruginous hawk.
From Boulder Creek we traveled north to McIntosh Lake, full of birds--although nothing really out of of the ordinary. We saw decent numbers of California gulls and herring gulls, plus 3 Bonaparte gulls still hanging on. Also all 3 merganser species and 2 ridiculously cooperative bald eagles.
Next we stopped in at Teller Farms, which hosted the long-present golden-crowned sparrow and an interesting junco.
We wound down the day at Valmont Reservoir, where the highlight was--wait for it--a downy woodpecker. This was no ordinary downy woodpecker: It was burrowing in the snow!
For sure, it was cold. And the birding was so-so. But the day was beautiful, the human company was wonderful, and a few of us survived to tell about it.
Ted Floyd
Lafayette, Boulder County
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