Sunday Boulder Birding

"Was that a Peregrine Falcon?", that sentence will always be stuck in my mind as a birding day of 73 species came to an end, only 1 mile away from my house in the middle of suburbia. That was only the second Peregrine that I had ever seen in my 1 1/2 years of birding.

As I woke up at 7:00 in the morning my dad said there was some Evening Grosbeaks in a small town in the mountains (Boulder County) called Allenspark. "Why not, that could be a good year bird", I thought. So we drove, drove until we found a local reservoir (Ryan's Gulch Res.) covered in a sea of migrating birds. We quickly diverted to a neighborhood right on the reservoir edge. As I scanned in the scope for any new birds a beautiful Greater White-fronted Goose swam through the scope almost the exact same time my dad said, "I got a white goose on the opposite shore". I quickly diverted my scope making sure to tell my parents where the GWF Goose was. Sure enough it turned out to be a Ross's Goose, a bird that we already had seen this year. As the hour wore on two tiny ducks flew in eluding my parents view and flying onto the ice about 30 feet away. As it turned out, both birds were Cinnamon Teal, a great new year bird.

With 32 birds and 2 new year birds we headed to Allenspark where we were able to photograph the two new year birds as shown below with this beautiful Clark's Nutcracker.

Clark's Nutcracker in Allenspark, CO

Cassin's Finch in Allenspark, CO

Evening Grosbeak Allenspark

After our mountain trip and a list of 52 bird, back in Ft. Collins we decided to head east. The only other new bird I got was a Say's Phoebe at the south end of Timnath Reservior. Thanks to everybody who helped me on that day.

Once again I am face with the lack of diversity in Colorado so this weekend (spring break) we are, as planned, going to go to California for a week and score on all the wonderful birds in all of California. Hopefully we will make it over 200. We will hit all of California from Point Reyes south to the Salton Sea and I am excited because I have only been there once when I was six and not birding. Hopefully I will score!
Skyler Bol
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