Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year

I've been able to take advantage of dry roads and nice weather lately. I had a couple very successful adventures in the last week and picked up some green avian targets for the year. January 20, 2021 A Harris's Sparrow was frequenting a private residence in Littleton (JeffCo) and despite arriving in the early afternoon, to find no birds anywhere, a flock of White-crowned Sparrows showed up a few minutes later and the Harris's popped up! Talk about luck! I also had taken my camera (a first for a bike ride) and lucked out with a couple decent photos for the blog! A sharp looking Harris's Sparrow! Harris's Sparrow (Green year bird #75) With the grand luck on the Harris's Sparrow, I decided to swing by the ball fields at Kipling and 285 (still in Litteton) to see if there were any Snow Geese around. Not a goose to be found, so I kept going north to Bear Creek Greenbelt to look for either of Winter Wrens that had recently been found between S Estes St and S. Kipling ...

January 17, 2021 I had a couple good days post the misery of shingles and decided I needed to try for the continuing rarities at Chatfield State Park: Golden-crowned Sparrow and Common Redpoll. I needed to take it easy on the bike and not push myself too hard, and I was largely able to do that. This was another typical January ride in Colorado as it was under 32 degrees F when I departed. I got to the horse stables area at Chatfield and found the Golden-crowned Sparrow in about 8 min with a group of others, whom I'm fairly certain didn't see the bird when it popped up and posed for about 10 sec, in spite of my calling it out immediately and giving very specific location information. The sparrow wasn't cooperative and I never got a photo, but I had a nice look. I stuck around for a few minutes hoping to get the other birders on the bird, but I saw it fly to the west with some juncos. I wished them luck and left. I quickly got back on the bike and went to S. Platte River delt...

Just a little update with a few nice Green Year Birds that I have gotten while I've been laying low at home while trying to recover from the shingles.  January 11, 2020 Bryan Arnold posted on CO-Birds about a Cassin's Finch at his feeder, and lucky me, he lives a half mile away in my neighborhood! I'd been watching my feeders for a Cassin's, with no luck. I emailed Bryan and he invited me over to take look. I found the bird almost immediately! This was the first time I'd met Bryan (after a lot of emails about birds and cycling over the last couple years) and it was a real pleasure. Not only did I get Cassin's Finch, but we had a great time chatting at a distance, masked, on his sidewalk. It was a wonderful morning. I look forward to cycling and birding with Bryan sometime. This is what birding is all about. Cassin's Finch was an early 2021 target as a few are still around town, which is fairly unusual. They'll be much harder to get once they return to th...

2021 started off with a bang! I set out to try to see as many of the locally rare birds and other scarcer species that would require chasing at some point. It was a great (cold) day. I left my house on my bike in Littleton at 8am on New Year’s Day. It was 25 degrees F! However, I had to go for the White-winged Crossbill near Holbrook park (Jefferson Co). I arrived about 9 am and there was NO ONE THERE! My heart sank. I didn't see the bird right away. Fortunately Brian Johnson showed up a couple minutes later and said a birder who was leaving said they’d seen it, but it flew south. Ten minutes later o r so the bird shows. Huge start to the year! Horrible phone-binoc (digibin) photo. Here's a better photo from a couple days earlier (and it was a lifer for me!) After celebrating the big crossbill score (which wasn't even on my list of birds I thought I could get), I looked briefly for the Winter Wren that had been around and decided I was too cold and it was better to keep rid...