Stearns Lake, Boulder County, Oct. 24

[Ted Floyd]

Hi, everybody. Hannah Floyd and I birded Stearns Lake, barely Boulder County, this frosty Saturday morning, Oct. 24.

Well, they're baa-ack... A couple hundred great-tailed grackles flew west over the lake and into Broomfield County. Most of them kept on going, but a few paused for a while on the Broomfield-Boulder line.

One or two swamp sparrows had the sense to stay put in Boulder County; it or they were holed up in the cattails at the southwest corner of the lake.

Other birds at Stearns were 3 drake wood ducks, seen-only; a chortling virginia rail; a no-nonsense, low-flying merlin; a flyover American pipit; white-crowned sparrows galore; and a western meadowlark singing as though it were spring.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County