Did you know that in addition to annual conventions, CFO sponsors occasional special field trips for CFO members? See http://cobirds.org/CFO/SpecialEvents.aspx for a schedule of these events.
This past weekend, July 9th and 10th, three cars-full of CFO birders headed to the northwest corner of Colorado for a great two days of Colorado (and even some Wyoming) birding. We started out from Idaho Springs at 7:00 a.m. to gather before heading over Berthoud Pass with a first stop at Windy Gap Reservoir where one of the most unusual species for the trip (and mid-July) was a 2nd summer male Common Goldeneye. We birded the roadside in Hot Sulphur Springs to check out hummingbird feeders at a couple of local restaurants along US-40 before departing for one of my favorite spots in Grand County, Williams Fork Reservoir. The willowy areas at the east end (upstream) were full of bird life including singing Veery and Fox Sparrow along with Gray Catbird, Warbling Vireo, Song Sparrow, Bullock’s Oriole, Black-headed Grosbeak and more. Along the south shore of William’s Fork in the grassy marshes there were Wilson’s Snipe, Savannah Sparrow, Sora and a single Long-billed Curlew.
We had lunch in a park in Kremmling with a Red-naped Sapsucker before continuing to the Rabbit Ears Pass area where we established a new eBird hotspot at Dumont Lake. As the afternoon wore on and got increasingly hot, we saw several Sandhill Cranes along the Yampa river from Steamboat Springs to Hayden before making it to Craig for the evening.
Sunday saw us head out and made it through a one-way traffic road project on CO 13 north of Craig to get to Moffat County Road 27 heading up into the Elkhead Mountains. This is a wonderful route gradually rising from scrub oak (where all present had a life bird—Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay) through aspen to fir/spruce highlands. We found everything from Indigo Bunting to Gray Jay along the route. Continuing north, we entered Wyoming to head back along State Route 70—a beautiful road, but one that failed to produce the hoped for Wyoming rarities that have been reported in the past.
Because of fire, we decided to return to the Front Range via Laramie, which allowed us to visit Hutton Lake NWR. That was a great choice because even at the end of the day in 90 degree Hutton gave us lots of ducks, shorebirds and sparrows as well as McCown’s Longspur.
Overall as a group, we tallied about 120 species on the trip. To investigate particulars, visit eBird for lists at some of the hotspots mentioned.
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
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