Northern Larimer County 1/10

Cheri Orwig and I decided to drive roads around Larimer County looking for interesting winter birds. We started out at Harmony Road on County Line Road, which is a breeding bird route that I made up last year. This route goes 25 miles with stops at every mile. Since it is not an official route I don't have to follow all the breeding bird survey rules. At mile 7 we found a Ferruginous Hawk (93). Then at mile 16, which is just east of a large cow feed lot, we saw two crow like birds flying over. At first we thought they were crows, but the closer they got they started appearing more like small ravens. Then when they got close to us we noticed one of the birds had a bill that appeared fairly short with nasal bristles that went most of the way down the bill. Then when it was directly over us we saw a rounded tail. With these field marks it makes these birds Chihuahuan Ravens (94). At mile 17 at the feed lot we found a Prairie Falcon. While doing this route we had several large flocks of Horned Larks, but they were to far away to find any Lapland Longspurs with them. This was a fun route today, but didn't get to much of interest, but Chihuahuan Raven was well worth the trip.

                                                  Prairie Falcon

We then decided to head up to Hamilton Reservoir at Rawhide Power Plant to chase several good birds that have been reported. On our way there we found a Golden Eagle sitting up on a small hill.

                                                  Golden Eagle

At Hamilton I got 4 year birds with 4 Horned Grebes (95), 10 Red-breasted Mergansers (96), 2 Gadwall (97), and 3 Long-tailed Ducks (98). Other birds of interest was a Hybrid Canada x Snow Goose, a Hybrid Mallard x Northern Pintail, 1 Greater Scaup, 12 Ruddy Ducks, 3 Buffleheads, 1 Pied-billed Grebe, and 2 Western Grebes.

                                                  Long-tailed Duck

We then decided to head back to Wellington SWA to try for owls. Our first stop was productive as we found 3 Long-eared Owls (99). On our way to our second stop we pulled over on the northeast corner of E County Road 64 and N County Road 3 to look through a lot of American Robins. While watching I heard a bird call once that sounded like a Red-bellied Woodpecker, but could never see it or even hear it again, so this might be the one that got away. At our second stop we saw nothing of interest. Our third stop, which was our last in this area, while walking we flushed a female Ring-necked Pheasant for my 100th species of the year in Larimer County, which only took 10 days to achieve this. I was worried I couldn't even do this in all of January.

                                                 Long-eared Owl

We then went to Prospect Ponds and CSU Environmental Learning Center (ELC). While at Prospect Ponds on Sharp Point drive we found a flock of Brewer's Blackbirds (101), 8 Bald Eagles, and 1 Snow Goose. The  ELC was very slow, although on our way out we were able to find a pair of Wood Ducks (102) underneath a tree overhanging the water.

                                                    Brewer's Blackbird

                                                    American Crow

                                                   Mallard

We drove by Fossil Creek Marsh looking for Great-tailed Grackle, but couldn't find any. A quick stop at Boyd Lake SP didn't produce anything exciting, nor did the stop at Lake Loveland. Our last exciting bird of the day was while we were leaving Lake Loveland when we saw a small flock of Cedar Waxwings (103).
A good day of birding and 11 year birds was well worth this winter trip.