Hi All,
-- The CU Birding Club took a trip out to the eastern plains to see what we could find, and it turned out to be a pretty fantastic day. We started out the morning with lekking (!!) Greater Prairie-chickens. 12 birds were observed at the corner of county road Q and 50 in Washington County. The birds were in full display, and the only reason we spotted them was because of the males jumping up and down displaying! After our prairie chicken success, we went to Prewitt Reservoir, intent on finding gulls. Lesser Black-backed and Thayer's Gull were the larus highlights, but the 110 Bald Eagles and the 45 American White Pelicans were also awesome to see. A flock of at least 30 Greater White-fronted Geese were in the corn fields near the entrance. From there we trekked to Tammarack ranch, in search of owls and eastern species. We encountered 4 Great Horned Owls, but no eared owls (yet). In terms of passerines, the 18 Northern Cardinals and the single Black-capped Chickadee were pretty cool. After walking every hedgerow there, we had still not found a long eared owl, so we decided to call it and begin the drive to Lake Ogallala. We stopped along the way at Jumbo Res, and actually saw the Tundra Swans a little before, in Red Lion. At Jumbo Res, we found many more Greater White-fronted Geese. Luke then mentioned the Juniper row at Jumbo Res, and how he had a Long-eared Owl there in December, so we decided to walk it. We walked the entire thing, and finally flushed a Long-eared in the last tree. Very clutch bird. From there, we went to lake Ogallala, where the highlights were a beautiful Harlan's Hawk, more Thayer's Gulls, and a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls. From there, we turned around and headed back to Tammarack ranch to see if we could find the previously reported Short-eared Owls. On the way in to Tammarack, we had a singing Eastern Screech-owl and a singing Northern Cardinal. It sounded like an evening chorus in Missouri. We stopped at the area 11 parking spot, and settled in to wait for sunset. As I was waiting for the owls to appear, I noticed a very large bird flapping about in the far back of the field. Hoping for owls, I spun my scope onto it and focused it. But, I did not see an Owl of any kind. It was a hawk, with a bright white supercilium, a long tail, with wavy bars across it, and white dapples on the back. I tried to talk myself out of the bird being a Goshawk, but that was the only thing it could have been. Unfortunately, the other members of the club had spread out, and none answered their phones when I called them. Some other birders who were looking saw the bird through binoculars, and their comments ranged from, "Oh my god its huge" to, "Wow thats massive". The bird then took flight, but the fading light made it almost impossible for me to get anymore details on it. The bird flew off very fast and I was unable to keep the scope on it as it disappeared into a different hedgerow. At that moment, I head a muffled yell from Luke, and then turned my attention to getting to him to see what he had. Turns out he had 2 Short-eared Owls, rounding out our day to a clean 4 owl day. After that, we were all extremely tired, and therefore decided to head home. It was a fantastic day of birding on the plains, with state birds for everyone in the car.
Will Anderson
Boulder
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