I got back from a trip to North West Colorado, camping at
Gates of Lodore Dinosaur National Monument and Pearl Lake State Park. Since I birded
in three different counties I will break up my report into three parts for the
counties. I began and ended by trip in beautiful Jackson County. On my way to
Gates of Lodore I stopped at Walden Reservoir and tried to find some of the
terns. There was many, many double crested cormorants, White Pelicans, eared
grebes and California Gulls. But I saw at least four Forester’s Terns and three
Black Terns which appeared to be
nesting in the submerged vegetation to the south of the reservoir, to the left
of the gull colony. I also saw about four Canvas Backs.This was Monday 6-6.
I returned through Jackson County on Friday 6-10 and stopped at the Arapahoe Wildlife Refuge, always a good place. There was the usually ducks, with many Gadwalls and one Rudy Duck. I saw one Willet and one Wilson’s Phalarope. All this was at the Auto Tour. By the time I got to the interruptive trail along the Illinois it was hot so the bird activity had died down but I heard one Common Yellow Throat somewhere on the other side of the river. However, the main highlight for me was not a bird but a Long Tailed Weasel that scampered across the road on the auto tour, right throw some Brown Headed Cowbirds and Brewer’s Blackbirds. The blackbirds did not notice but the Wyoming Ground Squires sure did. One the way home I stopped at Steven’s Gulch in the Pouder Canyon just to get some photos of the Pouder and found one American Dipper, which was in Larimer County, the only bird in the county from this trip as I did not spend much time there. Tomorrow I will try to post a blog on Moffat and Gates of Lodor.
Brian Johnson,
Englewood CO