The End of May

On Thursday, I went to Loveland Pass for yet another attempt to see a White-tailed Ptarmigan. That’s the only place in the state where they’ve been seen recently—other high passes are still snow-covered. I scrambled up and down the snow and rocks for about four hours without a hint of a ptarmigan. It has become my nemesis bird.

There were places where I was walking on crusted snow on decided slopes. Had I slipped, I would have slid down several hundred feet. It probably wasn’t super dangerous, but falling would have been interesting. I never did slip more than a couple inches, but at least twice, I broke through the snow and went in up to mid-thigh.

You can see my car far below, parked inside the hairpin turn. There’s no trail to where I was when I took these photos—I was just scrambling around on the side of the mountain.

All I have to show for it is some nice scenery photos and my first Colorado Fox Sparrow, which was also my first ever sighting of the Slate-colored subspecies. At that point, my camera battery died, and I discovered I didn’t have any charged ones with me. I missed what would have been a good photo of a Red Fox crossing a snowfield above timberline.

It was a long drive and a lot of walking for disappointing results.

On Friday, I went to Mueller State Park, Vindicator Valley Trail, and Florissant Fossil Beds. The day was nearly perfect, but the birds were few and far between.

Williamson’s Sapsucker male

Common Raven. It perched on a log in the woods above the trail and watched me go by. I thought I could see definite signs of intelligence in its eyes.

Chipping Sparrow at Florissant

I’d taken 12 days off in May to bird. I had some great moments—the American Bittern in Boulder comes to mind—but it rarely felt like migration. The birds were scattered—a new one here, a new one there—and oddly quiet. When I got home after two days of long drives and strenuous hiking, I told my wife I was done with birding for the (three-day) weekend—unless a lifer was reported somewhere near. Then I looked at my phone and saw a Yellow Grosbeak had been found in Huerfano County about 25 miles south of Pueblo (next post).

I drove down on Saturday morning and discovered about 25 other birders in somebody’s backyard. The owners were obviously birders and had an impressive feeder and water set-up in their yard. I was there less than an hour and saw 16 species of birds—including two or three Lewis’s Woodpeckers.

I was home by noon and intend to stay here for the rest of the weekend—unless somebody reports a lifer somewhere nearby. In total, I saw 185 birds during May, all of them in Colorado. That includes 72 new birds for the year, 8 new birds for the state, and one lifer. Also, my list for Pueblo County is now over 200 (202). Pueblo now joins El Paso in Colorado and Cook, Lake, and McHenry in Illinois for counties in which I’ve seen more than 200 birds.

This entry was posted in Birds, Scenery. Bookmark the permalink.