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The display of the male Greater Sage-Grouse is one of the most uniquely North American sights on this tour, a tour full of... uniquely North American sights! Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
We lucked into some awesome weather this week. An abundance of great bird and wildlife sightings followed suit. Everyone seemed quite pleased with how the tour developed, with magnificent views of the target species of grouse as well as amazing encounters with many other regional specialties, not to mention some pretty special scenery.
After meeting at the Denver airport, we scouted around the nearby grasslands, finding Burrowing Owls quite easily. We then headed south to Pueblo, making a detour to find Mountain Plovers and Scaled Quail. After a Mexican feast in Pueblo, we called it a night.
Morning birding east of Pueblo was quite thrasher-y. We first found Curve-billed Thrashers, and then followed those up with a flock of six calling Sage Thrashers! Heading east along the windy and dusty Arkansas River corridor, we sampled several lakes along the way, eventually stumbling onto a huge flock of white geese that turned out to be mostly Ross's Geese, quite late for this area. An early dinner in Lamar put us in good position for our first grouse lek.
After an overnight windstorm abated, we awoke in the dark and piled into a school bus for the ride across the eastern plains to a Lesser Prairie-Chicken lek. As the dawn grew brighter, we found ourselves staring at several male prairie-chickens displaying away on a patch of prairie at the edge of some agricultural fields. A marvelous first chicken encounter! Heading north along the eastern edge of Colorado, we stopped in barren farm fields, finding Ferruginous Hawk, more Mountain Plovers, and, wait, what's that - a Horned Lark badgering a Prairie Rattlesnake! Not a bad sighting for this early in the spring - the warm weather was encouraging lots of spring-like activity. Continuing to Wray, we were welcomed to the Bledsoe Ranch by Bob Bledsoe himself, then had an excellent dinner at a steakhouse in town.
As a lunar eclipse melted away into daylight, we enjoyed the extraordinary sights and sounds of a Greater Prairie-Chicken lek at the Bledsoe Ranch. Moving west, we lucked out with close views of a male McCown's Longspur at Pawnee National Grassland. Later in the day, we discovered a beautiful male hybrid Blue-winged x Cinnamon Teal at Lower Latham Reservoir near Evans, and got to compare it to Cinnamon, Blue-winged, and Green-winged Teal (just to be sure!).
After a good night of sleep, a morning drive took us up into the front range of the Rocky Mountains, and the air cooled down substantially. Arriving up high at Loveland Pass after breakfast, it didn't take long at all for a White-tailed Ptarmigan to appear on the slope below us. This male discovered another pair of all-white superchickens, and we got to enjoy a bit of sparring and calling at close range. Retreating to lower elevation, we soaked up a flock of all three species (four taxa, including Hepburn's Gray-crowned) of American rosy-finches at feeders in Silverthorne. Then, we continued on through the mountains to Gunnison, where we put down our bags for a few nights (a rare luxury on this mobile tour).
We were out early the next morning to settle in to the state-run Gunnison Sage-Grouse blind at Wuanita Hot Springs; though the grouse were fairly far away from the blind, we had good scope views, and also enjoyed warming up with the rising sun here. Later in the morning, we found Gray Jay, Clark's Nutcracker, and four different American Three-toed Woodpeckers at Monarch Pass. In the afternoon, we took a leisurely expedition up to Crested Butte, finding American Dippers en route and enjoying the scenery of this beautiful part of Colorado (though we opted out of skiing).
The next morning didn't involve a pre-dawn arrival at a chicken lek, but we did head to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in order to look for Dusky Grouse. Though we had to make a few laps through the park roads, we eventually found three grouse, including a female that perched in a tree top offering wonderful views. The stunning vistas of Black Canyon were also quite memorable. A windy afternoon mostly consisted of relocating to Grand Junction; however, we did stop to see some gorgeous Lewis's Woodpeckers, and also spotted a Golden Eagle hunting prairie-dogs below eye level at close range. Wow!
Our morning start out of Grand Junction took us to a dry canyon near Cameo, where we enjoyed Chukar scrambling around on the rocky slopes. A quiet loop through the spectacular Colorado National Monument turned up Pinyon Jay, Juniper Titmouse, and some great flyby views of White-throated Swifts. We then had the beautiful experience of driving through snow squalls on the way to Craig in the northwestern part of Colorado, through some of the most remote country covered on this tour.
An early wake-up in Craig allowed us to make it to Hayden in the dark to see Sharp-tailed Grouse dancing in the snow as the morning dawned. Though activity was subdued at first, we eventually got to see and hear a good dancing show along the side of a public road. We headed east to Walden and dropped off our bags at our hotel before continuing on for some afternoon birding. This took us to the Moose Visitor Center at the eastern edge of North Park, where we found a few Moose, two Pine Grosbeaks, and another flock of rosy-finches (close views of another Black Rosy-Finch!). An optional evening outing to Rabbit Ears Pass resulted in us hearing a singing Boreal Owl, certainly not a typical find on this tour! We couldn't see the bird because it was on the far side of a snow-covered roadside lake, but hearing its snipe-like song on a cold, still evening was very special indeed.
Our last grouse lek of the tour was perhaps the most spectacular. We met dawn on a dirt road near Coalmont, and found ourselves in the company of many dozens of huge Greater Sage-Grouse, strutting and popping away in a clearing in the roadside sage. The hours we spent in amongst those birds (at times, we were totally surrounded as grouse walked past on the road) were some of the most memorable of the whole tour. Happy with this experience, we floated back to Denver, stopping to see Barrow's Goldeneye at Windy Gap Reservoir and Williamson's Sapsuckers at Genesee Park.
With wonderful views of our target species, great company, and a lack of weather curveballs, this was definitely one of the most fun and successful tours that Chris and I have run this spring. Thanks to all for coming along - we hope to see you again at some point down the road.
Good birding!
Tom Johnson
KEYS FOR THIS LIST
One of the following keys may be shown in brackets for individual species as appropriate: * = heard only, I = introduced, E = endemic, N = nesting, a = austral migrant, b = boreal migrant
BIRDS
In the company of two male and one female Cinnamon Teal, the duck with the white facial crescent here was one of the most notable sightings of the tour. This is a male Blue-winged x Cinnamon Teal hybrid that we saw at Lower Latham Reservoir. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
This male Greater Sage-Grouse was one of over fifty individuals that displayed within meters of our vehicles. These birds have to be seen to be fully believed. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
White-tailed Ptarmigan received votes for "Bird of the Trip" from almost everyone, and for good reason. We found these birds still in fully white winter plumage at Loveland Pass, and they put on quite a show in front of us. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
Sharp-tailed Grouse danced for us (well, for female Sharp-tailed Grouse, I suppose) on a snowy morning near Hayden. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
At Bledsoe Cattle Company, near Wray, we enjoyed the dances of over thirty male Greater Prairie-Chickens. The displays became especially intense whenever a female walked through the arena. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
Enjoying the awesome weather, the group searched for dippers and ducks in Crested Butte. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
This stupendous adult Golden Eagle hunted prairie-dogs right in front of us near Fruit Growers Reservoir in western Colorado. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
This American Dipper was taking nesting material to its nest, under the bridge (the green blur here) on which the group stood. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
It's hard to ever get enough of the mysterious rosy-finches, but we pretty much maxed out our views during this tour. Here, a Black Rosy-Finch joins two Brown-capped Rosy-Finches at the Moose Visitor Center. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
This male Pine Grosbeak joined a female at the Moose Visitor Center feeders. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
MAMMALS
A small group of Bighorn Sheep were grazing on the side of I-70 during our morning trip to Loveland Pass. Needless to say, we pulled off for a closer look! Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
This Prairie Rattlesnake was crossing a plowed dirt field in the eastern plains of Colorado. We wouldn't have seen it without the agitated Horned Lark that alerted us to the snake's location. Photo by guide Tom Johnson.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS
Totals for the tour: 136 bird taxa and 26 mammal taxa