Birding North East Colorado

[Luke Pheneger]

Today my mom (Tracy Pheneger), Maikel Wise, Susan Wise, and myself went on a long anticipated trip to Logan County.

We started off with Tamarack Ranch, where on the drive up we had a flyover MISSISSIPPI KITE just East of Sterling flyover over the highway. 

At the ranch without spending more than 20 minutes we already had amazing looks at RED HEADED WOODPECKERS, a RED BELLIED WOODPECKER, BELL'S VIREOs, and an EASTERN TOWHEE that we hadn't been expecting to see at all.

 Farther up the road were; NORTHERN CARDINALS, NORTHERN BOBWHITE, BALTIMORE ORIOLES, FIELD SPARROWS, BROWN THRASHERS,NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRDS, and an excellent look at a singing ALDER FLYCATCHER.

We then took a detour to Duck Creek SWA where we found our target bird; UPLAND SANDPIPER pretty quickly perched on a sign. 

Duck Creek turned out to be an excellent little hotspot as we got to hear an OVENBIRD close by, and a TENNESSEE WARBLER perched up in an aspen without getting too far away from the entrance road. Hiking through the area itself lead us to find amazing rarities such as a BLACK THROATED GREEN WARBLER singing its crazy song, and a GRAY CHEEKED THRUSH foraging very close to the gound giving us outstanding looks. 

We finished off our day at the East Side of Tamarack where the only new species for the day was a YELLOW BILLED CUCKOO that I flushed from a thicket on accident, giving everyone decent flyby views.

Good Birding

Luke Pheneger

Longmont, Colorado

[Art Hudak]

Luke,
Do you have any photographic or voice documentation of the rarities?
Sincerely,
Art Hudak
City of Denver
County of Denver