April 9-20, 2026 with Micah Riegner & Chris Benesh
2026 gave me an opportunity to return to Colorado for the first time in several years and an opportunity to experience the much-improved Colorado Grouse tour that Micah Riegner has orchestrated. We managed to connect with all of the gallinaceous birds that we were targeting as well as a great assortment of other goodies found in the intermountain West.
We experienced a broad swathe of what weather Colorado could throw at us, ranging from toasty temperatures in southeastern Colorado to blizzard and snow flurry conditions during some of our time in western Colorado. Perhaps most impressive was the snowy morning we experienced while dipping into Utah for sagebrush species. Seeing Long-billed Curlews standing in the snow, the lone Franklin’s Gull patrolling along the roadway, the only landmark visible during the whiteout, and small groups of Pronghorn browsing on bits of sagebrush poking out above the snow. The impressive numbers of Horned Larks forced to the road edge was also memorable.
Conditions at Loveland Pass were also less than ideal, so much so that 9News weatherman Jaden Knowles was there with a film crew doing a piece on the big snowfall. We were after White-tailed Ptarmigan and facing the prospect of finding a white bird against a white background. But the impossible was made possible with the help of a thermal scope. The ptarmigan could not hide their heat signatures. After a big celebration we headed to the Wildernest community where several private feeders provided sustenance for a pile of Brown-capped Rosy-Finches, along with juncos, nuthatches, and a few woodpeckers. All were viewed with the backdrop of falling snow.
This is a story of experiencing the variety of grouse that are actively courting during the early Spring in Colorado and adjacent states. Kicking things off with a cooperative Dusky Grouse near Boulder, our travels then took us to Kansas to experience the antics of Lesser Prairie-Chicken at the Nature Conservancy’s Smoky Valley Ranch. Quite a spectacle watching their booming displays. The following day we at another lek near Wray, Colorado experiencing the Greater Prairie-Chickens, offering a great opportunity to mentally compare the two including the rather different soundscape created by their differing morphologies.
Along with two prairie-chickens, we had two species of sage grouse to enjoy. Seeing the Greater Sage-Grouse displaying in the snow drove home just how challenging it can be for birds living in such a harsh and varying climate. An appreciation of the spectacle of lekking grouse cannot be complete without mentioning the fabulous Sharp-tailed Grouse lek seen near Craig. We had nearly 35 birds displaying close by on a chilly morning.
There were so many highlights and you shared some of your favorites at the final dinner back in Denver. These included White-tailed Ptarmigan, Lesser Prairie-Chicken, Boreal Owl (all tied with the most votes), followed closely by Greater Prairie-Chicken, Pine Grosbeak, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Mountain Plover, Brown-capped Rosy-Finch, Thick-billed Longspur, Clark’s Grebe, Clark’s Nutcracker, Mountain Bluebird, Gunnison’s Sage-Grouse, and Pinyon Jay. So many fabulous choices! Thanks to all of you for making the tour such a success! And thanks to Micah for organizing things so smoothly!
Mammals seen on the tour:
Mountain Cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttalli)
Desert Cottontail (Sylvilagus audubonii)
Snowshoe Hare (Lepus americanus)
White-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus townsendi)
Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus)
Least Chipmunk (Neotamias minimus)
Yellow-bellied Marmot (Marmota flaviventris)
Wyoming Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus elegans)
Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus)
Common Rock Squirrel (Otospermophilus variegatus)
Common Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)
Black-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys ludovicianus)
White-tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys leucurus)
Gunnison Prairie Dog (Cynomys gunnisoni)
Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus niger)
North American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)
Ord's Kangaroo Rat (Dipodomys ordii)
Coyote (Canis latrans)
Wapiti (Cervus canadensis)
Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus)
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
Moose (Alces alces)
Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/499582
You can see my iNaturalist report of non-avian taxa at this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/field-guides-colorado-grouse-2026
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/cgr26TRIPLIST.pdf
-- Chris