As predicted, work was very busy in mid- to late-February, so green birding was mostly limited to walks from my house, mostly to Clement Park, and a few bike rides to chase birds. This was fine since February is well, not the most riveting month for birding in the Denver area. Or is it?
I have a few fun stories from chases over the last few weeks to share, but the big news is I finally got a Northern Goshawk from my yard and it was Green Big Year bird #100!
Green Big Year species list: 102
Miles ridden: 431 miles (as of March 8)
Walks to Clement Park where I haven't seen much yet this year: too many
2021 Joe Roller Memorial Green Big Year Species List
Please consider a tax-deductible donation or pledge per species (pledges do not need to be paid until the 2021 green big year ends). The pledges and donations are incredibly motivating. Thank you. We are doing this for Joe and for budding ornithologists! Please pledge or donate. We are closing in on our goal of $20,000 once I hit 250 species! We have some work to do, so let's do this!
https://cobirds.org/CFO/Grants/
Now for some fun stories:
22 February 2021
I had planned to ride to Aurora for the Summer Tanager today, but plans fell through as our nanny had a rare sick day. I took the day off, got my daughter off to school all masked up, and wrestled with my boys most of the time. I got wind that a Glaucous Gull at Robert Easton Park was relocated mid-morning. Glaucous Gulls are around, but very tough to catch up with (especially on a bike), they don't often stick around, and thus they are a code 4 on my list (a bird I have to chase!). However, I was caught at home with the boys and was now very twitchy! I thought about putting the boys in the bike trailer and riding the 4 miles to Easton, but I'd be pulling about 80 lbs of boy (who would almost certainly be complaining) and trailer into a wicked head wind, and slightly uphill the entire way. This seemed like a terrible idea. However, some good friends decided to help me out BIG TIME! I bribed the boys with lunch from their favorite fast food joint and my friends watched them in my backyard while I was gone for 45 min to chase the gull.
The wind from the west was brutal on the way to Robert Easton. I'm now really glad I didn't go for the tanager as riding home 22 miles into that headwind would have been pure misery! I roll up to Easton and see Rob Raker, Dale Pate, and Tom Hanson. I'm completely winded from riding at my limit and I plop down on a bench literally gasping for air. The guys didn't initially see me, yet I was only 50 m away, but this is largely because they were expecting me to arrive from the south, not the west. It was so windy, I didn't even bother to call out. But I got the gull! It was sitting on the ice looking like the beast that Glaucous Gulls are. Success!!
Not 4 min after I arrive, I blink and the bird was gone. Everything had flushed! Here comes a Bald Eagle. The eagle landed where the Glaucous was loafing. The Glaucous hovered over the heads of Rob, Dale, and Tom, and then it drifted and was over my head for probably 20 seconds (where I completely failed at phone photos) and drifted southeast, never to be seen again! What luck! I rode over to the guys and we exchanged some air high fives and fist bumps. The ride home was much easier, not only because it's slightly downhill the whole way, but I got a huge green year bird, and well, the 25 mph tailwind pushed me home in record time!
I was smiling for hours after this adventure. It takes a team to get green year birds and this was a memorable and extremely fun (yet painful) trip. I'll say it again, it may be about the numbers this year and doing it for Joe, but the experiences and memories created while birding with others is what makes this crazy green year that much more special. And a HUGE thank you to my temporary baby sitters!
The Glaucous Gull, photo by Tom Hanson. This is way better than my digibin photo: https://ebird.org/checklist/S82165726
Thanks to Rob Raker for this action shot!
24 February 2021
I've looked for the dark Ferruginous Hawk that is often (or in my case, not so often) at the Chatfield Botanical Gardens and along Deer Creek Canyon Rd. I've ridden by twice and even did a drive by when out and about, and haven't seen it. Ferruginous Hawk is a bird I'll likely see at some point, but it's by no means a given, so this bird needs to be targeted.
I was going to ride down to Chatfield and the Botanical Gardens and look again, but heard it hadn't been seen. Due to a couple eBird reports, I was pretty sure it was spending most of its time at the prairie dog town on Quincy Ave, just east of the federal prison at S. Kipling St. I took the quick ride up there and found it!! Sweet green bird and a GORGEOUS bird to boot. I can't say for sure that it's the same bird from Chatfield, but it seems likely with reports from both places never occurring on the same day (from what I can tell) and it has been seen flying in between the locations. Plus there aren't that many dark Ferruginous Hawks around town.
Horrible digibin photo of the Ferruginous Hawk
3 March 2021
Today is the day when I FINALLY got to go for the long staying Summer Tanager in Aurora. The bird has been around since October (not reported until early Feb), so I hoped that I'd get another chance. It's 22 miles EACH WAY to this bird, but Summer Tanagers are always pretty rare around Denver and they rarely linger. We had a male Summer Tanager linger at Chatfield State Park for over a week in fall 2020, but that's the exception. I need to get this bird.
I arrive at 1035, almost exactly on schedule, and with the legs feeling pretty good! Ginny Bergstrom met me at Meadowbrook Park and the residence where it visits feeders. After waiting 15 min, I wander around a little to look for the bird. Of course that's when it shows up and Ginny calls out "it's here, it's here!". I jog back to her (mind you, I'm in my cycling gear and still in cycling shoes, ha!), got nice looks at the bird on the feeders, but my only photos are digibins when it was perched in a tree nearby. I blinked and it vanished. We waited around a bit hoping for a return visit of the tanager, but it didn't show. I needed to get rolling. However, Tim Smart arrived. I had never met Tim before, so this was great. Apparently I'm the birding by bike guy! Ha! Ginny brought water to refill for my bottles, so I filled up (thanks!), and started the trek home.
My best shot of the Summer Tanager. Ha!
Instead of just going right home, I decided to stop and check out Cherry Creek State Park, mostly because there were a lot of gulls off the swim beach. Of course this added an hour to the trip, but it was a gorgeous day and I got birds! I got Ring-necked Pheasant (very, VERY lucky!), Northern Harrier (2 together!), American White Pelican and Horned Lark for the green year. It was a long 48 mile round trip, and included running out of water and cramping a bit a few miles from home, but it was an epic and successful adventure!
https://ebird.org/checklist/S82697140
7 March 2021
Read about my first yard Northern Goshawk, and Green year Bird #100 in my eBird report below. This was just dumb luck too because one of my twin boys finally decided he was ready to ride his pedal bike (his twin has been on his pedal bike for months). As a result, I delayed a little solo bike ride a bit and got the goshawk in the interim. I think Joe was paying this one forward to me. Special moment all around!
Fortunately an eBird reviewer validated my report, as you know they can be stingy (said this fellow eBird reviewer 😅).
https://ebird.org/checklist/S82980910
It's not all peachy. Let's not talk about the 3 times I've specifically gone looking for Canvasback and having missed them by 2 minutes or a day. Sigh. I'll get a Canvasback!
I promised to talk about birding on private property in this post, but I have simply run out of time and energy. I'll get to it.
Let's bird!
Thank you!
Scott
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