CFO Field Trip report: The Big Night, June 9-10, 2017

[Ted Floyd]

Hey, everybody. Apologies for the tardy posting, but work and life and such got in the way. Anyhow, I am pleased to report that the third annual CFO-sponsored Boulder County Big Night was great fun. Eight folks with problematic psychological profiles birded Boulder County from sunrise, 8:27 p.m., on Friday, June 9, till sunrise, 5:32 a.m., on Saturday, June 10. We recorded 63 species from sunset to sunrise, a bit down from last year's 70, but a respectable tally nevertheless. My personal faves were:

5. A northern saw-whet owl going like crazy in the pine woods west of Boulder.

4. Winnowing Wilson snipes breathtakingly close in a flooded hayfield in South Boulder

3. A grasshopper sparrow singing its eerie song in a grassland just north of Boulder

2. An American white pelican gliding silently across the moonlit waters of Sombrero Marsh

1. Another American white pelican, gliding silently across the moonlit waters of Coot Lake

What can I say? I really like the sight of pelicans in a halo of moonlight.

Lots of other stuff out there: families, somnambulant fisherman, big brown bats, coyotes, Woodhouse toads, meteors, and wonderful fireflies.

Next year's Big Night is tentatively scheduled for Saturday-Sunday, May 26-27, 2018.

Ted Floyd

Lafayette, Boulder County