Listing Through Life

My Accidental Hike

Posted on November 9, 2019 by Roger

A Pacific Loon was sighted at Chatfield State Park. I drove up on Saturday morning to look for it. I had just gotten to the shore of the lake when I spotted another birder looking at some scaup that were diving about 50 yards off shore. I asked him whether he thought they were Greater Scaup or Lesser Scaup, and I let him look through my spotting scope.

At that point, he took over as my birding guide, telling me where we were going next and what to look for. He was giving me instructions on where to go and where to put my scope. At one point, when we decided to drive around to the other side of the lake, he told me I could give him a ride to his car, which was parked a couple of lots further away.

It sounds obnoxious, but he was actually a nice guy. I chuckled to myself and let him lead, knowing that I could walk away at any time. He was probably a little better birder than I am, but not as much better as he thought he was. I often saw things before he did (which he acknowledged), but he also bragged a lot about the many photos he’d had published. Maybe that accounts for why my photos of two Long-billed Dowitchers on eBird are marked as “unconfirmed” while his photos of the same two birds taken on the same day in the same place, and often at the same moment were accepted.

Here’s a photo of Rob trying for a close-up shot of the scoters.

We saw about 30 species, but no Pacific Loon.

Long-billed Dowitchers

White-winged Scoter

Black Scoter

Rob went his way, and I drove about 20 miles to Aurora Reservoir. I’d never been there before. I had to pay $10 to get in. From where I parked, the lake looked about four miles around. I grabbed my scope and started to walk. There were birds, but most of them were far out on the lake, so I didn’t get many good views. The path was paved, and I soon regretted not changing out of my hiking boots into my walking shoes. Especially when I finally happened upon a map that said the loop trail was more than nine miles around. It turned out that the reservoir had a lot of deep bays hidden from my initial view. And the trail followed every single one of them along the shore instead of cutting across the peninsulas. I soon had blisters on my feet and a very sore shoulder from carrying my heavy tripod and scope. I also didn’t have enough water. When I was through, I’d done 12 miles on the day — not a big deal if I had been prepared.

Along the way I saw a Pronghorn with the longest horns of any I’d seen.

Muskrat

Great Horned Owl

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Bird #550 — Eastern Screech-Owl

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Roger

megascops (from megas, great, and scops, owl) asio (eared owl)

Saturday, November 2, 2019 — 2:16 pm

Littleton, Colorado — Ketring Park

Chalk this one up to eBird and a friendly birder — and some stubborn persistence on my part. An Eastern Screech-Owl has been hanging out in the same hole in the same tree for each of the past two winters. The tree is in a small park in the Denver suburb of Littleton. When I saw on eBird that people were seeing it again this fall, I decided it was time for me to go.

I drove up on Saturday, October 26 and arrived around 8:00 am. I had seen photos of the owl in its tree, so I knew I was looking for a hole with a sawed-off branch stub on the right. I also knew the hole wasn’t terribly high because of the angle of the photos. But I had no idea where in the park the tree was. I began wandering around, checking each tree carefully. I’d made it about halfway through the park when I saw an older gentleman with a pair of binoculars (and a small dog). I asked him if he knew where the owl hung out. He did, but before he would show me, he asked me if I was going to annoy the owl. He said he’d seen people walk right up next to the tree with their cell phones. I told him I’d be good.

We walked about 200 yards to the other side of the park. (At least I had the satisfaction of knowing I hadn’t looked in the right tree yet.). We walked quietly through a cut in some bushes and came upon a clearing with two trees in the center. The one on the right had the hole I was looking for, but the owl wasn’t in view. I thanked the guy, and he took off (to say nothing of the dog).

I walked the loop trail around the park, which is maybe a mile, and checked the hole again. Still no owl. The Littleton Museum is in the park. In addition to some inside displays on local history, they have two restored working farms from the 1800’s, complete with animals. I wandered around there for an hour or so, then checked on the owl again. Still not there.

I drove about two miles away to an antique mall and wandered for a couple hours, then went back to look for the owl. Still not there. I made another loop of the park and then looked for the fifth time. Nope. I gave up for that day and headed home. I knew I’d see it eventually, as long as I was willing to continue making the drive to Littleton.

This morning I birded around Colorado Springs and drove to Littleton around noon. I headed straight to the park, but the owl wasn’t out. I walked the loop around the park and checked again. Still no owl. I drove to Duffyroll Cafe (where the cinnamon rolls and sandwiches are amazing) and had lunch, then drove another four miles north to check out Fifty-two 80’s, a store that specializes in 1980’s pop culture. I got back to Ketring Park a little after 2:00. As I walked toward the place where the owl hangs out, I saw an elderly couple head back into the clearing. They came back to the path less than a minute later, so I figured I’d struck out again.

I didn’t. There was the owl, pretty much taking up the entire hole.

You can tell it’s an Eastern Screech-Owl as opposed to a Western Screech-Owl because the base of its bill is light grayish-green. On a Western, it would be dark gray or black. Also, the horizontal streaks on its chest are more noticeable whereas on the Western, they’re very thin.

If you look at a map of Colorado, you’ll see that the state is divided nearly in half north to south by I-25. If you draw another dividing line straight east to west so that it intersects the city of Castle Rock, you’ll have four roughly equal quadrants. Eastern Screech-Owls are generally resident in the northeast quarter of the state. Western Screech-Owls are generally found in the other three.

It so happens that the Eastern Screech-Owl is the only regularly-occurring Illinois bird that I had never seen. I was OK with that as long as I lived in Illinois because it meant that I could see a lifer anytime I went outside, even if it was just in my own backyard. But I never saw a hint of a screech-owl there. I had heard them in central Arkansas years ago, and may have even had one or two flash across the night darkness in front of my car, but nothing I could count. But once I moved to Colorado, I decided it was time to add the species to my list.

I had my new camera with me for the first time and so I was able to get these amazing photos while never getting closer than this to the tree.

The owl paid me no attention whatsoever. It sat motionlessly for the first five minutes with its eyes closed. Then it preened its belly feathers which made it look like it had two large white tufts sticking out. But when a couple of crows flew over calling nearby, the owl began to get nervous. It looked up and around in all directions. (You can hear the crows through the background noise in the video and see the owl looking around.) After another two or three minutes, it turned and ducked back down into its hole out of sight.

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Fifty-Two 80’s

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Roger

On Saturday, I drove to Littleton to see the Eastern Screech-Owl. When my first foray into Ketring Park came up empty, I decided to do some sightseeing and then return for another try. I drove about five miles north toward downtown Denver and spent maybe 20 minutes in a store called Fifty-Two 80’s. There are 5,280 feet in a mile, and Denver is the Mile-High City, so that’s where the store got the name. The “80’s” part comes because the store features toys and pop culture merchandise from the 1980’s. My daughter was born in 1986, so she did most of her growing up in the 1990’s. Somehow many of the fads of the 80’s seemed to have slipped by without my noticing. But there was stuff I recognized — Alf, Mork & Mindy, Gremlins …

I bought a little Alf figurine for my wall and three packs of Moonraker trading cards. When the movie first came out, we went to see it and then got engaged later that night. And while this is cute and endearing and all, we both think the movie is terrible.

The packs were original and unopened. I didn’t chew the 40-year-old bubble gum. It was kinda gray and green and had the texture of cement.

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Red Rocks Canyon Open Space and a New Camera

Posted on November 2, 2019 by Roger

I bought a new camera with a ridiculous zoom. I’m learning not to try to take photos on full zoom because I can’t hold it steady enough at that magnification without a tripod, and I don’t want to lug a tripod with me everywhere.

But even without full zoom, I’m impressed. I went to Red Rocks Canyon on a cold November morning to look for a Golden-crowned Sparrow that had been seen there by the feeders for a couple days. Not only did I not find the sparrow, I couldn’t find the feeders. I was somewhat relieved when I saw that nobody else found the sparrow this day either.

Here’s what I did see.

Red-tailed Hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawk eating … a sparrow?

Belted Kingfisher

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Blue Man Group

Posted on October 22, 2019 by Roger

A friend and I went to the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to see a traveling Blue Man Group show. We drove up after work and ate supper at Sam’s No. 3 diner before the show.

Our seats were front row center in the mezzanine. The show lasted an hour and a half. They did the marshmallow bit, and banged on drums that shot up color. Other than that, it was different from the first time I saw them in Chicago many years ago. They did some audience participation bits and a lot of staring into the audience and a lot of moving around the stage doing stuff with various props. There weren’t very many “songs.” Two guys not dressed in blue played drums and guitar in the background. It was amusing at times, and fun overall, but I’m not in a big rush to see them a third time. Traffic was light going home and I was back shortly after 10:00.