Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year

Good luck to all birders everywhere for the new year (of birds) and hopefully some rarities to come. Right know I am very excited for the new year and my dad and mom have decided that for tommarrow to bird a lot and mabey go try for a Glacous-winged Gull and a Iceland gull being reported right now down in Denver. Both of these birds are on my year list for this year so I'm not going today. It is hard to tell if they will stay today because right now in Ft. Collins the wind gusts are above 50mph, we will see what happens.
Also thanks to everybody supporting and also commenting on my blog.

Skyler

Friday, December 30, 2011

The traveler from the artic

Today my dad and I traveled down to denver at 8:00 to try for the Snowy Owl for the second time but it was a no go. This has been a bird that is very sneaky for my dad because before Colorado we lived up in Alaska in Ancorage and every year he had the opertunity but he missed it. After a try for the owl we decided to head back with nothing more than a Northern Shrike, Western Grebe, and a Herring Gull. Since we were in the area we decided to go visit my Uncle who lives in a suburb of denver. On the way down we stopped to look at two birds on the side of the road. The first was a Mountain Bluebird ,fairly common in that habitat, the second one was a bluebird to... except this one had a red cheast,score a Western Bluebird an amazing bird for winter that far up. As we kept on driving Magpies, Stellar's Jays, and Pygmy Nuthatches (also expected) flew out and to the other side of the road.
After a long chat with my uncle and cousins i went outside and found 3 Mule Deer bedded down 20ft away not even caring that cynder (the dog) and I were there. After having a staring contest with the deer I started to play with with cynder when I dropped the ball mid through because though the loud pygmy nuthatches I heard the high to low decending call of a Say's Phoebe. I sprited inside almost slipping on the ice and open the glass door an blurt out SAY'S PHOEBE! My dad quickly rushed out to hear it singing to in the front yard.

Also birder John Varderpoolfrom our state might still be able to beat the gigantic number of 745 birds set by Sandy Komito in 1998. To me that number is dreamable as a fantastic life list. Great Job John!

Skyler Bol Ft.Collins

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

The new year is coming!

Today we left Kansas City with 59 birds (not a really high list.) and 2 lifers. Durring the ride back I had time to plan out my first day of my big year if all goes well it will look something like this,
7:00-8:30 get up and bird neighborhood - 8 birds
9:00-10:30 to 11:00 Grandview Cemetery/Sheldon Lake - 20 birds
2:00-3:30 Environmental Lerning Center - 26 birds
4:00-sunset Lake Loveland - 34
And I hope to get a little more than that but I will see what happens.

Skyler

Friday, December 23, 2011

Christmas time in Kansas

I am ready for the year to come with all my supplies ready and my new Sibley in hand..... 430 as a new goal and Christmas morning in 2 days. I am pumped and excited for the new year. I will post on Jan 1 about my first bird and everything else to happen in this exciting year to come. I am a little worried about not meeting my goal of 430 but I hope I can. Today I got 2 new lifers, which makes me at 404 ( the lifers were Eastern Towhee and Red-shouldered Hawk). Special thanks to 2 nice birders at the Overland Park Arboretum who showed us the hawk.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Who am I?

Hi,
My name is Skyler and I am a 12 year old boy who lives in Ft. Collins Colorado. I have been birding for 2 years and my life list is 402. For me a junior big year was enspired by another young birder. Today it is December 18th and I thought I would start blogging today and get an early start. My goal is to get over 400 birds which defently is not as good as some of the harder more experiencenced birders but starting young is always good. In 2012 I plan on doing trips to California,Arizona/New Mexico/Texas, Kansas/Missouri, Alaska, and possibly Oregan. We will also be looking for rarities around our home base, Ft.Collins. I will post weekly or more often when on a trip.