Anyway … eBird has gotten me interested anew in year lists because I don’t have to do any of the tracking. I just have to go out and see birds and record them. In 2017, I ended up with 210 birds, which I’m happy with considering all that was going on in my life.
So when January 1 rolled around, I went birding. I decided to start with the Red-breasted Sapsucker that’s been seen every day for the past couple of weeks on the southwest side of town. I’d added it to my 2017 list on the final day of the year — the day before — why not go back the next morning and add it to my 2018 list? I looked online to make sure it was still being seen. It was. But more exciting was the news that a Varied Thrush was also being seen about two miles away from the sapsucker.
Varied Thrush has long been my most desired bird that is already on my life list. I first saw one in October, 1979, just five months after I began birding. It landed in a bush in the backyard of our house and stayed only a minute. I was sure of my identification at the time, but nobody else was around, and I never thought of taking pictures in those days. Ever since, I’ve wanted to see another one so I could erase my nagging doubt that I made a mistake.
Anyway, I decided to stop off to see the sapsucker and then take whatever time it took me to find the thrush. The woodpecker wasn’t there, but I overheard a woman telling a friend that she’d seen the thrush just a short while before. I ask her for details, and she gave me precise directions to the spot in Cheyenne Canyon. I drove over, and as I was getting out of my car, I met another birder who had just seen it and gave me even more precise directions. I walked down the road through pine woods along a creek and looked for a flock of Robins. When I began to see and hear them, I stopped and looked for the Varied Thrush. It took me about 30 seconds to find it.
It was sitting in a bush across the creek, but it didn’t stay there long. It flew down to a branch over the frozen water
then to another branch
and then downstream where I lost track of it. I hung around waiting for it to show up again while I checked out the many other birds in the vicinity. After maybe 10 minutes of solitude, two other birders came by. I told them they were in the right spot, and one of them soon spotted the thrush. It kept moving, and we lost it again. Then I found it in a berry bush across the creek.
More birders kept coming, and the area was getting crowded. I’d had my time alone with the bird, so I took off. I headed back to the sapsucker stakeout. There was one guy there who informed me that he had to go to the bathroom but thought he could hold out for a while longer. About then the sapsucker showed up on the trunk of one of the three trees where it’s been hanging out. It had a great knack for keeping its head hidden behind branches.
But finally it hopped down lower on the trunk.
The area began filling up with birders. I took off, and after a quick lunch at Culver’s, headed down to Fountain Creek. I saw all the usual suspects there, including a mixed flock of Canada and Cackling Geese. Here’s a shot of two Canadas (left) and a Cackling next to each other, with a sleeping Mallard thrown in just for fun. You can get a good look at the difference in the bill size and shape. This, and the length of the neck, are the things I look for when i.d.ing geese.
I ended the day with 35 birds, including the two Colorado rarities I’d seen within 15 minutes of each other before noon. I also spotted a Great Horned Owl in a large cottonwood right next to, and easily visible from, the main trail. I spent several minutes watching people walk and bike past it without noticing it.