Denver

We were planning our first birding trip to Colorado and found a great group of birders at the Colorado Birds group on Google. We joined the group and asked for suggestions on where to go birding and received great tips from many members. One of the members was Doug Kibbe who offered to take us birding on Saturday morning. We flew into Denver Friday night and met Doug the next morning at a car park off I-70  near Golden.  We drove to Ira Sander’s house where his wife Tammy has designed and built an amazing garden and bird habitat that includes native plants, feeders, water features and brush piles to attract a variety of birds for all seasons. We found out later that Ira was also doing a little ‘big year’ and Sharon tied him for 2015. We saw 14 species at Ira’s including the Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay thanks to a split of the species. It’s not everyday that you see Black-billed Magpie in someone’s yard.

We next drove west into the mountains near Squaw Pass where we visited the home of Ruth and Dan Brown, who have a beautiful view of the mountain ranges and amazing birds just outside their picture windows on several levels. Not only did we reach our goal of 500 birds we added three life birds: Clark’s Nutcracker, Pine Grosbeak and Cassin’s Finch. While we watched the feeders and made new friends we enjoyed hot tea and danish. We didn’t want to leave but had a lot more birding to do during our brief time in Colorado. We drove down the mountain to Idaho Springs stopping on the way to check out feeders on Soda Creek Road. The fourteen species included four varieties of Dark-eyed Junco. We parted ways with Doug and hope our paths cross again, either  in Colorado or Florida.

We headed west and stopped at Georgetown where we found Bighorn Sheep grazing by the roadside. We drove through the tunnel to Silverthorne for a quick stop at the water treatment plant for one of our target birds, the Barrow’s Goldeneye among other ducks. All of this took place before 1:00 and we stopped for a very nice lunch at the Sunshine Café. Next was a short drive to a location that had feeders swarming with Rosy and Brown Finches. On the way to the hotel we drove around the Dillon reservoir for wonderful scenery.

We checked into the Hotel Frisco, which is a traditional and inexpensive inn located on the main street of  town. Many restaurants, shops and craft breweries are located just a few minutes walk away. Dinner was right next door at Vinny’s which we were told and agree is the best food in town.

Sunday morning we took the back roads passing the Keystone and Arapahoe ski resorts on the way to Loveland Pass and the Continental Divide. What an awesome view. We found a parking area where a group of young people with skis and snowboards were getting ready to and heading down the mountainside for free skiing adventures. Several huskies went along as well. We hoped to find a White Ptarmigan which is near impossible to see since it blends in so well. We were told to look for snow that moves which we didn’t see that day.

We drove back toward Denver to spend some time birding Chatfield State Park where we found  many Red-breasted Mergansers along with Western Grebes and a variety of gulls. Over to Barr Lake State Park for our fix of over 5,000 Canada and Cackling Geese, with Snow Goose and Greater-white Fronted Goose mixed in. Doug let us know about a Snowy Owl near the airport so we drove down Tower Road towards the back side of the airport and found many raptors hunting in the Prairie Dog fields. We eventually found a group of birders scoping the Snowy Owl and had great looks. Very glad we stopped because we found a lifer Prairie Falcon on the way out.

Downtown Denver was our final stop and we headed to Larimar Street for a drink at the Ginn Mill and dinner at a very cool place called Ophelia’s Electric Soap Box where they have live entertainment on most nights. We checked out one of the smoke shops but did not partake. Another of our whirlwind 48 hour weekends was done and we reached our goal of 500 birds so we headed for home, tired and happy.

 

Next up: Savannah & South Carolina

Trip : Total Species: 56 Year Birds:  10  Life Birds: 5

2015 : Year Birds: 509   Life Birds: 83

Here’s the list: 2015 Bird List