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