Great Boulder Caper 11/23/18

[Luke Pheneger]

Hi all,

Today 24 birders took part in the annual Great Boulder Caper.

We started our endeavor at Cottonwood Marsh where introductions were constantly interrupted by the VERMILLION FLYCATCHER showing off near the parking lot. Once we were done enjoying the flycatcher we continued on into Walden and Sawhill where we came across a multitude of interesting species including a NORTHERN SHRIKE, NORTHERN HARRIERS, and a pair of GREAT HORNED OWLS.

As we continued closer to the “Boulder Creek @ 75th street” area we began to notice the wind becoming a little more uncomfortable, blowing the occasional hat off of ones head. This minor inconvienience wouldn’t stop us from finding: CEDAR WAXWINGS, YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, 2 GOLDEN EAGLES, and the well known Walden Ponds HARLAN’s HAWK. 

After a quick meeting to discuss our possibilities of various alcids we ventured to a few different lakes, as we figured passerines would not be likely with the 25 MPH winds. The highlights were 2 HERRING GULLS and  a wonderful flyby adult CALIFORNIA GULL at McIntosh Lake, 2 HERRING GULLS at McCall Lake, and a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL, FERRUGINOUS HAWK, and a SNOW x CACKLING GOOSE hybrid at Lagerman Reservoir.

For our final stop for the day, picking through a few thousand CACKLING GEESE at Dodd Reservoir didn’t seem like too bad of an idea. This yielded A GREATER WHITE FRONTED GOOSE, a SNOW GOOSE, and a few more hybrid geese.

So congrats to those that made it through the entire day, a total of six of us! Not bad given the weather conditions!

Good Birding, 

Hope to see you on the Caper Next Year!

Luke Pheneger