2 Snowy Owls, Pinyon Jays, Trumpeter Swans, what a day on 1/8

This morning Sol Miller and I headed back down to Adams County again to try to see the Snowy Owls. It took about 15 minutes and we were able to find the adult in the field just southwest of 14141 Harvest Road at about 7:15 AM. It was sitting on a sign for another 15 minutes and then it flew a little further away from us and sat down on the ground. While watching the bird I eventually saw another bird fly by it and land not to far away from the adult. This was the juvenile. It was pretty exciting to have two Snowy Owls in the same field at the same time and even more exciting that for a brief time I had both of them in the same view at the same time. We saw several birders come by and we showed them where both owls were. After about an hour and a half we decided to try to get back to Larimer County and I knew just the place to try.

                                                     Snowy Owl - adult

                                                     Snowy Owl - juvenile

We arrived at Colared Lane just before 10 to try to refind a flock of Pinyon Jays that have been hanging out in the area all winter. We drove the road several miles back in there and stopping periodically to play tapes for the jays and any other birds in the area. While doing this we found a good variety of birds, but no Pinyon Jays, so we decided to turn around. There were a few places I wanted to stop and play a tape on the way out. After playing the tape at out first stop going out, which was about three quarters of a miles before leaving Colared Lane I heard a bird in the distance. I told Sol, "I have good news and I have bad news. The good news is I just heard a Pinyon Jay, bad news, it was a long ways away." After a few minutes of listening and not hearing anything else we continued on. When we got about a quarter mile away from turning off Colared Lane we found a large flock of Corvids, the first birds we saw were Black-billed Magpies, then several Steller's Jay. Then I saw a light blue Corvid fly into a Pine Tree. "Pinyon Jay", I yelled excitedly. After trying to get photos of that bird in the tree a couple more flew in and landed in the top of the trees. Then just as fast as they all came in they flew off, all 18 of them. Another year bird makes 90 for the year.

                                                      Pinyon Jay

                                                  Pinyon Jay flock

                                                    Townsend's Solitaire

                                                     Townsend's Solitaire

                                                      Pygmy Nuthatch

                                                   Mountain Chickadee

Then Sol took me back to my cat where we went out separate ways. I decided to head to Cattail Ponds to check out what was still around and what was new. There was still a good variety of diving ducks. There was still hundreds of American Wigeon, Redheads, and Ring-necked Ducks. I identified 2 Common Mergansers that have been being called Red-breasted Merganser and there was also a Bufflehead present also. The Trumpeter Swan was still there also.

                                                   Trumpeter Swan

                                                  Trumpeter Swan

                                                  Trumpeter Swan

                                                  Common Merganser

I then went to Connie Kogler's house on my way home to look for a Harris's Sparrow. She only lived about a mile away for me. Despite seeing lots of birds the Harris's Sparrow never made an appearance. A couple of the better birds was a Sharp-shinned Hawk (91) and a very interesting looking hybrid junco.

                                                   Hybrid Junco