Fremont County: Green Heron, Tricolored Heron, Least Bittern

[Polly Neldner]

Paul and I decided to travel up to Fremont County with our trusty dog, Scooter, for a great morning of birding. On the drive up we saw a Peregrine Falcon along Hwy 50.  At Holcim Wetlands we watched a Green Heron flying across the pond. We, and several other birders, searched for the Tricolored Heron for quite awhile. One group left and Paul and I were just getting ready to call it a day when the Tricolored Heron flew in and landed! It gave us, SeEtta Moss and two other birders great views. The Tricolored was a new Colorado bird for us.

As the morning was quite warm I decided to walk back to the car to get Scooter and myself a drink of cool water. We had just reached the car when Paul came running toward me calling "Least Bittern flew in!"  At first I had a bit of difficulty locating the bird. SeEtta had her camera mounted on a tripod and I was able to locate it with that. Once located all 5 of us were able to observe the Least Bittern for more than 30 minutes. A lovely and quite cooperative bittern indeed!  As my only other look at a Least Bittern was for around 3 seconds a couple of years ago...this was essentially a lifer for both of us.

It was great running into birding friends,meeting some new people and some we had previously only corresponded with via e-mail.

Good Times,

Polly Wren and Paul Neldner
La Veta, CO