Yesterday I noted that I would try to run the scheduled Boulder Bird Club field trip to mountain feeders today, unless discretion proved the better part of valor. Well, we were indiscrete and sought out the lesser part of valor.
Five of us crammed into my car and left Boulder shortly after 8:00 and headed up Boulder Canyon (apologies to those we left behind). The conditions were deplorable, and twice I had to pull over to knock the ice off my windshield wipers on the way to our first stop in Eldora (town). I’m not sure that it was a good idea it was to head to Eldora first anyway, as we were in a line of at least 100 cars heading to the Eldora ski area. In any event, we made it and found one set of nicely active feeders that were hosts to several Clark’s Nutcrackers and Pine Siskin as well as juncos, chickadees and nuthatches. Somewhat out of place at 8,000 feet + 2 feet of snow were five Red-winged Blackbirds.
From Eldora we headed north toward Ward and gradually improving conditions. The lower feeders in Ward were the only place where we found any birds, but hanging out there were about 35 Evening Grosbeaks, a dozen Brown-capped Rosy Finches, more siskin and a Cassin’s Finch. After a nice brunch at the Morocco Restaurant right next door (if you park there, you should eat there, no?), we saw more of the same at the feeders before heading up to the Brainard Lake gate. In the parking area were a pair of Gray Jays contemplating a brunch of their own. Driving back down the road we has a pair of Red Crossbills.
We kept going north to Allenspark, and I should note that the temperatures were in the low 30s and the road was generally just wet and only occasionally slushy. We even saw the sun a time or two. Driving into Allenspark, Lonnie Frey sighted a bird on a utility wire which I was able to identify with binoculars in my side-view mirror as a Northern Pygmy Owl. The bird perched calmly out in the open as I pulled out my scope and we got great views and pictures. The Fawn Brook Inn served up more of the same—Evening Grosbeaks, Brown-capped Rosy Finches, Cassin’s Finches, Pine Siskins, chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers plus House Finches and a single Eurasian Collared-Dove. A drive past the other feeders in town led us to an American Collared-dove, aka a FOS Band-tailed Pigeon at a feeder.
On the drive down the South St. Vrain Canyon into Lyons, shortly after I regaled my passengers with the tale that one time years ago on the very same BBC Mountain Feeder trip we had seen a dozen big horned sheep along that road, we saw…a dozen big horned sheep. (By the way, driving back from Allenspark to Lyons the temperature dropped 25 degrees—from 38 to 13. Two weeks ago Ted Floyd, Alex Brown and I experienced a very similar temperature drop of 17 degrees in 3 minutes.)
Bill Kaempfer
Boulder
