A huge debt of thanks to Quinn Pack (who walked the whole thing with me again — he say's "Next year there will be T-Shirts!"), Jayne and George James (who were part of the walk from Pelican Point to a bit past Shop Creek), my wife (at 12-mile Trail), and a bevy of birders/photographers at Pelican Point (all of whose names I can't remember, so I won't try)!
The 12-mile walk (7-1/2 hours) around the lake netted 59 species. Considerably down from the prox 70 last year! Quinn and I talked a lot about how "odd" was this year for birds. But there were some goodies: Tennessee Warbler, Sora (SEEN, not just heard!), Franklin's Gull and Forster's Tern were, for me, fun to see. Tennessee Warbler was a life bird!
In the non-birding category, we saw a bat (!) working the area just south of road, near the turn-off to "12-mile Picnic Area/Dog park" and a coyote in the "prairie"-like area along Cherry Creek Trail south of the Shooting Range,
I was bummed to learn that Black Tern had been seen just before we arrived at Pelican Point, and again about 1/2 hour after we left. Such is birding! On the other hand, we got to see another kind of bird — a war-bird — as one of the last operative B-17 bombers was making its annual visit to Centennial Airport.
BTW, it was 59 degrees when we left Tower Loop, and 91 degrees when we got back — much like last year. And the Park was no-where near as crowded this year last.
Put Labor Day, 2022 on your calendars now (well, I know, Labor Day 2022 IS already on your calendars . . . . but the Circum-Lake-Cation needs to be there too!!
Gary Brower
Unincorporated Arapahoe County
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