Denver,
Colorado area
Aug
9-10, 2001
Stormy, cold front, 40-72
An afternoon up to Mt. Evans
and a few hours at Chatfield State Park! This second page has
pictures from Chatfield State Park.
65 species total
Click on the thumbnail pictures for full-sized ones.
| Thursday afternoon the weather
cleared some, and the rain quit. It was overcast and
in the upper 60s when I headed south to Chatfield State Park to
see what kind of shorebirds I could locate. Flocks of
Canada Geese and Black-billed Magpies were feeding at the beach, and I got a
fleeting glimpse of an Indigo Bunting next to shore. |
Canada Geese |
Gravel-pit Pond |
The only gulls I could find at the spillway were California and
Ring-billed--where are the Franklin's? So I continued on
around the lake to the gravel pit ponds. Blue Grosbeak and
American Goldfinches were two of the nice species
there.
|
At the Heron Rookery overlook were a number of fine birds:
White Pelican, Chipping Sparrow, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Phoebe, and Yellow
Warbler. While there, a fellow birder let me know about a Piping
Plover!!! at the Plum River delta, so of course I headed
directly there.
|
Heron Pond
|
|
Platte River Delta - Chatfield
Reservoir
| A pair of birders from Scottsdale was just
leaving the area as I arrived, and they told me where to look
for it. Walking down the trail, I met one more couple who
said the plover was now flying around quite a bit. A
minute later I was at the location, with only a small creek
between me and the bird. |
Plum River delta
|
Unfortunately all I had was my
8x30 binos, and the shorebirds were quite a ways off. I
could barely make out Baird's, Least, and Spotted Sandpipers, but I couldn't turn any of them into a
Piping Plover. So after a bit of pacing, I took off one
shoe and sock, and hopped across (until I sunk down about a foot
and a half into the mud, that is...). But it paid off, and
I got fine looks at the plover at the delta!
|
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Black-billed Magpie
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| A little farther down the delta I found
Western Pewee, more House Wrens, and Song Sparrows. As it
started to get dark I headed back around the lake and found my
last new bird for the trip, a Lark Sparrow.
MT
EVANS
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