CFO field trip announcement: Return of The Great Boulder Caper!—Black Friday, Nov. 28, 2025
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Ted Floyd
Nov 3, 2025, 12:15:39 PM (3 days ago) Nov 3
to Colorado Birds
Colorado Field Ornithologists (CFO) is pleased to announce The Great Boulder Caper, v. 2025. This zaniest birding event of the year will be held the day after American Thanksgiving, on Black Friday, November 28, 2025. The Caper is not a traditional CFO field trip. Our itinerary will be determined by local conditions and what seems exciting that day. The Caper is freeform: part–birding flashmob, part–progressive dinner party.
Co-leaders are Ted Floyd and Megan Jones Patterson. Plus whichever of you are forcibly conscripted as co-leaders by Ted and Megan on the spot.
Here's how to caper with us: Please register online with CFO; the online registration form is fast, easy, and intuitive. CFO won't ask you for money, sell your identity to Starbucks, or track your every movement with the eBird app. After you're registered, Ted and Megan will confirm with you the meetup point, essentially unknown at the present time, and the vaguest sense of an itinerary, which, honestly, gets determined day-of. But if you need a general sense for things, it seems likely that we will get underway in the 7am hour somewhere in the general vicinity of Longmont, Boulder County.
The Caper is free and open to the public, but we need to cap this popular outing at 30 participants. So it is first-come first-served; and, surreally, several of you already have reserved a spot, even though this announcement is going out only now. Go figure.
Ride-sharing is strongly encouraged. Figure it out among yourselves. We’re all friends. And if your rider or driver is a perfect stranger, well, how often do you meet a perfect person? Feel free to come and go as you please. Most years, a few of us are still capering well past sundown; but it is also totally fine to bail at noon, or not show up till noon, or whatever.
What will we see? Late November is brilliant in Boulder County. No guarantees, but recent Capers have produced Swamp and White-throated sparrows, Virginia Rails, Marsh and Canyon wrens, Prairie Falcons and Prairie Merlins, Ferruginous and Rough-legged hawks, Northern Shrikes, American Dippers, Eastern Screech-Owls, rare geese and gulls, late shorebirds, great studies of eagles, every variety of Dark-eyed Junco imaginable, and enchanting flocks of bewitching American Bushtits.
What will we do? Watch birds, of course. Eat leftovers. Ridicule shoppers. Share our love of birds and other wild things with one another.
All are welcome! You don’t have to be a CFO member to caper with us, although, if you are not, it is likely that the several CFO BOD members in attendance will compel you to join. Children, teens, and non-birding companions are especially welcome.
Co-leaders are Ted Floyd and Megan Jones Patterson. Plus whichever of you are forcibly conscripted as co-leaders by Ted and Megan on the spot.
Here's how to caper with us: Please register online with CFO; the online registration form is fast, easy, and intuitive. CFO won't ask you for money, sell your identity to Starbucks, or track your every movement with the eBird app. After you're registered, Ted and Megan will confirm with you the meetup point, essentially unknown at the present time, and the vaguest sense of an itinerary, which, honestly, gets determined day-of. But if you need a general sense for things, it seems likely that we will get underway in the 7am hour somewhere in the general vicinity of Longmont, Boulder County.
The Caper is free and open to the public, but we need to cap this popular outing at 30 participants. So it is first-come first-served; and, surreally, several of you already have reserved a spot, even though this announcement is going out only now. Go figure.
Ride-sharing is strongly encouraged. Figure it out among yourselves. We’re all friends. And if your rider or driver is a perfect stranger, well, how often do you meet a perfect person? Feel free to come and go as you please. Most years, a few of us are still capering well past sundown; but it is also totally fine to bail at noon, or not show up till noon, or whatever.
What will we see? Late November is brilliant in Boulder County. No guarantees, but recent Capers have produced Swamp and White-throated sparrows, Virginia Rails, Marsh and Canyon wrens, Prairie Falcons and Prairie Merlins, Ferruginous and Rough-legged hawks, Northern Shrikes, American Dippers, Eastern Screech-Owls, rare geese and gulls, late shorebirds, great studies of eagles, every variety of Dark-eyed Junco imaginable, and enchanting flocks of bewitching American Bushtits.
What will we do? Watch birds, of course. Eat leftovers. Ridicule shoppers. Share our love of birds and other wild things with one another.
All are welcome! You don’t have to be a CFO member to caper with us, although, if you are not, it is likely that the several CFO BOD members in attendance will compel you to join. Children, teens, and non-birding companions are especially welcome.
Participant feedback from last year’s Caper: “I laughed. I cried. It changed my life.” “The most fun you’ll have with your pants on.” “I left my food, money, and optics in Ted Floyd’s car. And never saw any of it again.”
We’re so looking forward to capering with you! Please register online, and we’ll do all the rest. We got this!
Ted Floyd, Boulder Co.
Megan Jones Paterson, Boulder Co.
P. s. Here's a pic, attached/below, from a sort of "pre-Caper," held yesterday afternoon, Sunday, November 2. The group is at Hecla Pond, Louisville, Boulder Co., and we're enjoying a celebratory swig of kombucha.
We’re so looking forward to capering with you! Please register online, and we’ll do all the rest. We got this!
Ted Floyd, Boulder Co.
Megan Jones Paterson, Boulder Co.
P. s. Here's a pic, attached/below, from a sort of "pre-Caper," held yesterday afternoon, Sunday, November 2. The group is at Hecla Pond, Louisville, Boulder Co., and we're enjoying a celebratory swig of kombucha.
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