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 or so the bird shows. Huge start to the year!
Horrible phone-binoc (digibin) photo.
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 riding. I rode to the Barrow’s Goldeneye on the S Platte River in Denver Co. I had it before I even stopped the bike! I stopped and took some digibin photos of the Barrow's, picked up a few new duck species for the year and added them to my eBird list (https://ebird.org/checklist/S78389531), and rolled down towards Chatfield State Park.
Along the S. Platte Greenway, I picked up Greater Scaup by Reynold’s Landing (Arapahoe County). It's nice to pick up that species early on. Then I saw a birder who looked familiar. It was Brian Johnson! This is the moment when I decided I was doing this the hard way. Ha!
At the area below Chatfield Dam (Douglas County), I picked up Swamp Sparrow and Northern Pintail (which are few and far between for me, and I had a whopping 1 "green" pintail in 2020!), but missed Rusty Blackbird and the Long-tailed Duck at S. Platte Reservoir. I was out of time, having told my wife and family that I'd be home at lunch time (which I stretched to 12:30). On the way home I stopped at a local screech owl box and amazingly it was poking it's head out! What a GREAT bird to get on day 1! I ended the morning with 51 species. Not a bad start. Most importantly, I got most of my big targets.
Eastern Screech Owl at undisclosed location.
January 2. My family gave me a two hour window to be out in the morning (I really had to be home for lunch at 11), so I rode to S. Platte Reservoir again (it takes me about 15 min to ride there). I got the Long-tailed Duck after much effort. The look was very unsatisfying and brief, but I got it. The bird dives a LOT and drove me mad. Hopefully I can get back and get more satisfying looks. I went back to try to get Rusty Blackbirds at the usual beaver dam site at Chatfield and was about to give up because I needed to start home and heard one call. I then saw it foraging on the beaver lodge! Lighting was horrible and the bird wasn't showing well, so no photos. Another birder there got it for a lifer! It's always fun to share a lifer with someone! I saw this same birder at the crossbill the day before. It's a small world.
I had started feeling a little funny on the morning of the 2nd, but not enough to deter me from riding. That evening I really started having symptoms of something and it turned out to be the shingles. I have been pretty much laid up since, but got a couple new green year birds in the yard like White-crowned Sparrow and White-breasted Nuthatch. At least the year started strong. Hopefully I will get past this and be able to have the energy to get out on the bike in a week or two. I also hope I can put on a helmet without pain! I guess it's better to get this now than in May!
Thank you for all the pledges so far! It is humbling, inspiring, and motivating! I think Joe would be pleased, but maybe he'd scoff at all this a little too. See link below to pledge or donate. As a reminder, a pledge doesn't need to be paid until I get my final species total at the end of the year!
Scott
Total green species to date (as of 5 Jan): 64 species
Miles ridden: 49 miles
***I'll try to figure out how to post a list of species I have seen
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