First and foremost, thank you for all the pledges and donations! The total pledges so far have been astonishing! Between donations and pledges per species (assuming I hit 250 species), we are about 70% of the way to our $20,000 target! I think Joe would probably roll his eyes and tell a joke about the time we chased what would be his first Arapahoe county Brown Thrasher at Cherry Creek State Park. We saw the thrasher fly away and vanish and then Joe gave me slack for not getting him better looks!
Please consider a tax-deductible donation or pledge per species (pledges do not need to be paid until the 2021 green year ends). The pledges and donations are motivating me to get out and get birds. I'm truly humbled. Thank you. This is going to be such a fun year!
https://cobirds.org/CFO/Grants/
January 2021 overview (and then the birds!).
I thought I'd start off with a little overview of my general strategy for this green big year. It's a challenge to balance being dad to 3 kids, work, and the birds! Family is first, but it stings just a little to get texts like, "Jaeger at Chatfield [state park] now!" when you're heading out the door to watch your daughter play soccer on a Saturday morning. I know I can't go after every bird. I won't get every bird and that's OK! I will try for the birds when I can. Sometimes that jaeger stays for 3+ days so you can get it on Monday morning!
Anyway, I'm a bit of nerd, so unsurprisingly, I have created a spreadsheet of all possible birds and given them a personal "code" of 1-5 that basically says how difficult they are to get walking or riding from my house. This also includes consideration of rarity level. Code 1's are birds that I'll get without trying, like Yellow Warbler, Song Sparrow, and Cackling Geese. I have 141 code 1's on my list. I won't miss any of those (I better not!). The other extreme is Code 5, which are mega rarities like White-winged Crossbill or Red Knot, which I intuitively know I need to chase. It's the Code 2's and 3's that are tricky. Code 2's are birds I'll almost certainly find being out birding a lot, but are lower density or just a little less common. I need to make sure I get those code 2's, for example Snow Goose, Common Nighthawk, Hermit Thrush (I missed them in 2020!), shorebirds like Long-billed Dowitcher and Semipalmated Plover, several gulls and terns, and species like White-faced Ibis that can be a little tricky to find sometimes. Code 3's tend to be a bit rarer, including transients like eastern warblers, less common terns like Caspian and Common, and shorebirds like Red-necked Phalarope. White-faced Ibis probably should be a 3! In the end, I could swap species from a 2 to a 3 and vice versa, but either way, the list helps me focus on what I need to see. At this point, I don't know why I have a code 4 category. I should just combine the 4's and 5's. They are all locally rare and I know a chase or planned effort is required, like those jaegers! All of this helps build a strategy and to maintain that balance of family, work, efforts on the bike. Ideally it helps me make smart(er) decisions about trips for birds that I won't likely find somewhere.
My January plan has largely been a success, despite getting full blown shingles on January 2 and being down and out for a while. I did really well with the rarer species, including White-winged Crossbill, Harris's and Golden-crowned Sparrow, Long-tailed Duck, Greater Scaup, Winter Wren, Northern Shrike, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and several others that I'll discuss below! I've gotten a lot of those Code 1 expected species along the way, which is always nice. I ended January with 86 species, which I'm quite proud of considering illness. The only rarity I missed was the Common Redpoll at Chatfield State Park and I only missed it by a day.
During February, I'll largely focus on chasing rarities that show up, trying to find some goodies on my own during walks and rides, and chasing down a couple species that I think warrant being targeted with a bike ride. The latter will really just be riding for the sake of riding and maintaining fitness through what will be a very busy work month! I just hope nothing really good shows up when it's 17 degrees out!
January 29, 2021
Now for the birds. I decided it was now or never to try for the rosy-finches coming to the feeders at a private residence north of Golden. This is a big ride for me, especially in January, and still not being 100% over the shingles (residual nerve pain!). The rosy's have been coming to the feeders off and on, even on warmer days, which convinced me I had to try. The rosy's are code 5's on my list, simply because they are a big ride from the house, and I'm not going to find them anywhere else. The forecast was supposed to be about 35 degrees F when I set out about 730 am, but it was actually 46 F. This really discouraged me. It'd be pretty warm by the time I would arrive and historically the rosy's don't come in on warm days.
I have to thank Rob Raker for encouraging me to take a different bike route than I originally had planned. I'm not a fan of riding the side walks/bike paths along Kipling St. and through Lakewood proper, but it was the perfect route. WAY less climbing than taking the C-470 bike path. The traffic was minimal as well. The ride was 24 miles to the residence and it took me 1:45 to get there! I will admit, my legs were TIRED in the last mile to the rosy-finch house. I arrived at 9:15 am and there were no birds around. No surprise. Just my luck.
Kirsten, the homeowner, was expecting me and said the rosy's had been in twice that morning and they would be back. She was so convinced. I crossed my fingers for about 30 min as I sat on her back porch and sweated like crazy in the sun! Kirsten came out after a while and said they'd be back soon. I wasn't feeling real optimistic, but as we chatted, the birds arrived! All of a sudden the flock came out of nowhere and swirled over the house. The flock was about 300 birds and they eventually descended on her feeders as I watched in awe just 10 feet away. I've seen rosy's at her house before, but nothing like this. I managed to pick out one Brown-capped before they flew. Brown-capped is the rarest here with only 1-3 being reported. Big birding win! The birds were very nervous. They flushed and vanished for no apparent reason. Someone needs to follow them when they flush and figure out where they go.
Kirsten is such a wonderful host. She offered to fill my water bottles (yay!) and we chatted for a while. It was time to get going and as I was getting my bike gear in order, the birds came back! I slowly walked back to the corner of her backyard. They swirled around a few times, making a ton of racket, and came to feed for about 5 minutes. What a treat. And what a win getting all 3 rosy-finches (which feel like bonus birds!) for my green year list. Even better yet, it wasn't snowy and 17 degrees!!
https://ebird.org/checklist/S80074529
Although I was uncertain if my legs could get me home (that's cyclist talk), I decided to ride further away from the house and visit Tucker Lake. The 2.5 miles to Tucker was worth it. I met a very nice older couple who were interested in the birds but had trouble identifying the gulls. I was impressed as the husband walked up to the top of the dam on the rough gravel path with his walker. He was very slow, but steady, and he sat down on the bench to rest. It was a pleasure to chat with them for a couple minutes. The view of town and the mountains was also really nice (no photo!). It's not just about the birds. It's about the people you meet and the experiences along the way that make this so fun. While we chatted, I found the first cycle Iceland (Thayer's) Gull that had been reported. The couple also eventually saw the Iceland and admitted they all looked the same. :) They enjoyed the birds regardless and that's all that matters.
Iceland is a code 3 on my list, and worth a little effort. I found an Iceland at my local patch last fall, but they are fairly tough to find around my house. It's tough to ride to a gull roost at sunset as that's the time when I'm helping with homework, making dinner for the kids, and trying to control the chaos. Maybe I'll find another Iceland Gull, maybe not. But I have it for the year already! There had been 1-2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls at Tucker Lake, but I couldn't find one. Most gulls were sleeping and one could have been tucked in on Tucker. No biggie. I'll find a Lesser this year.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S80079482
I had one more target bird before the slog home. A Brown Thrasher had been reported at a private residence in Golden. The homeowner is a new birder and doesn't want a bunch of folks coming to look in his yard, but he was gracious enough to let me take a peek. He said the bird often arrived to feed on his suet between 12-1 pm. I arrived at 11:55. At 12:01, I had the bird! I got some poor digibin photos (see one below), and I ended up sitting in his yard for 15 min eating lunch and planning my path home! Maybe I just didn't want to get on the bike again? I had ridden 35 miles already and wasn't so sure about my fitness level. Fortunately, after getting past a couple big, brutal hills coming out of Golden, it really is mostly downhill on the way home.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S80079475
Brown Thrasher
I got home having logged 54.5 miles and climbing 2,650 vertical feet! Although I was tired, I didn't feel too bad. I ate ALL the food that night though! I felt pretty good over the next couple days, which was surprising. I don't need to do rides like that again anytime soon as it's early in the year. I need to avoid burnout or simply overdoing it, but it gave me confidence in my basic fitness. This is a marathon, not a sprint. I didn't ride fast nor make record time getting anywhere, except some of those big downhills (!!). I was slow and steady, and that's good for bike birding. Best of all, I got all 5 of my big targets and met some really nice folks along the way! It was an amazing and memorable day.
I'll discuss birding on private property and respecting property and homeowner/landowners wishes in my next post.
Green Big Year species list: 87
Miles ridden: 238 miles (as of Feb 2)
2021 Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year Species List
I actually stopped to take in the scenery a couple times (ok, maybe I stopped to catch my breath and eat more food!), and took some photos!
Until next time.....good birding.
-Scott
Great story! I also have had great experiences at Kirstin's house with the Rosy's. Still have yet to confirm a Brown-capped though, even sifting through all my photos :(
ReplyDeleteI definitely got lucky to find one when I was there! I likely wouldn't have gone back to try again, not anytime soon, that's for sure! Keep trying!
Delete