Great Boulder Caper, Nov. 28, recap

[Ted Floyd]

Hello, Birders.

More than 50 us capered yesterday, Black Friday, Nov. 28, in Boulder County. We had visitors from such faraway points of origin as Wyoming (n=2), Iowa (n=1), Vermont (n=1), New York (n=5!), and El Paso County (n=3). Thanks to the Boulder Bird Club (http://boulderbirdclub.org) for sponsoring this splendid outing.

We started out at Walden Ponds, an essay in "Black, Brown, and Beige." Even the Northern Pintails and Hooded Mergansers we found were all females, bewitching in their, well, black, brown, and beige. We also saw a Ferruginous Hawk, a hatch-year Northern Shrike, a roosting Great Horned Owl, a nerve-[w]rackingly close first-year Bald Eagle, a strikingly dark Red-tailed Hawk (but it wasn't a Harlan's), a great throng of brown-and-beige American Tree Sparrows, a female Northern Harrier, an Interior West ("Rocky Mountain" or "Nelson's") White-breasted Nuthatch, and the most unforthcoming Spotted Towhee in the history of birding.

Next it was over to the Boulder Country Club [private], where we saw a single bird with more pizazz than all the Walden birds put together: a preposterous drake Mandarin Duck. Several times we saw this un-banded bird in sustained flight. We also heard Red-breasted Nuthatches, Pine Siskins, and Interior West White-breasted Nuthatches here.

Then it was McIntosh Reservoir, where we we were pleased to find several dainty Bonaparte's Gulls. Numbers of gulls and goldeneyes were good, but the birds were distant and obscured by heat shimmer. Bummer. We wound down at Jim Hamm Nature Study Area and Teller Farms, where we saw nothing out of the ordinary, but enjoyed fine company, lovely weather, and beautiful scenery.

Here are some sights and sounds from the caper:

1. Mandarin Duck: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-ManD

2. Weld County yahoos: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-Weld

3. Looking at Bonaparte's Gulls: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-McIn

4. Anticrepuscular rays: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-anti

5. Sunset at White Rocks crossing: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-WhRo

6. The Caper gets under way: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-TeFl

7. Great Horned Owl: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-GHOw

8. Marvin Woolf & Brown Creeper: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-BrCr-01

9. Brown Creeper close-up: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-BrCr-02

10. Birding at Walden Ponds: http://tinyurl.com/GBC-2014-WaPo

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County, Colorado