Catching Up...Again.

Hello everyone!
I greatly apologize for having not been posting this summer. Since the Big Birding Weekend with my dad I have not been out much. Life has been very busy for me.  Started a job, then quit and started a new one. I now am working as a photographer at the Downtown Aquarium in Denver, CO. Finally getting started down the road to a career in photography or videography! Very excited.

To catch up I shall continue on with the second half of the Big Birding Weekend...

Waking up at 3:30am, my dad and I packed up and headed out. Our target locations today were Chatfield State Park and Waterton Canyon. These two locations are favorites of ours, providing great diversity and birding. Definitely some crown jewels of the Colorado birding scene.  We arrived at Chatfield just before 5 as the sun's light started to peek over the horizon.   We parked at Kingfisher Bridge and could hear a ton of activity all around us as we stepped out of the car.  American Robin, Great Horned Owl and Canada Goose all called in the distance, along with many a buzz and song we couldn't quite make out.  Soon enough Yellow Wabler and House Wren joined in the chorus.   We started along the trail and saw a small hummingbird.  We didn't have the best views and both happened to have left the bird books in the truck.  So we took mental notes and trekked further in.  The trees were alive.  Broad-tailed Hummingbirds soon made appearances, as did a Willow, Hammond's and Least Flycatcher.   Coming to a point where we could view the river, we picked up Common Merganser, Osprey, Belted Kingfisher and Great Blue Heron within a few minutes. An Olive-sided Flycatcher perched high up on a tree further upstream.  We forged ahead listening to the many songs and calls all around us, thoroughly enjoying this treat of nature.  We paused for a moment to look for a woodpecker we heard, and my dad looked up just in time to call out a flock of White-faced Ibis that was flying over.  A nice surprise.  We then decided to turn around and head back to the truck and go to another part of the park.  We drove to the lake overlook and had a look around.  We finally added Violet-green Swallow to our list at this point. Looking over the lake produced Common Merganser, Snowy Egret and a few other ducks. I then noticed another diving duck off in the distance and after a few minutes of study and deliberation with my dad, we identified it as a young Common Loon, a very pleasant surprise.  We then packed up back into the truck and headed off to Plum Creek.  Upon arriving at Plum Creek,  we were soon greeted by the pair of Eastern Phoebes that have been nesting under the bridge. We were treated to some great views before the birds flew off into the trees to hunt for insects.  We birded around the bridge and a Dusky Flycatcher made a brief appearance.  We then turned our sights for the path along Plum Creek and headed off.  Within a few steps, we discovered a female Yellow Warbler constructing a nest in a shrub just off the path. I tried for a photo but she flew off before I had a shot.  We waited a little longer with no success and then pressed on.   Another pair of Common Mergansers made an appearance, as did a few other common birds we had seen all day.  We were unable to go very far as the water level was pretty high and made cross country walking very muddy and wet, so we turned around.  We came upon the nest shrub again, and my dad kept walking while I sat down to wait out the warbler for a photo shoot.   After about 10 minutes of waiting, she finally returned with spider web and fiber for her nest.  I was able to get a couple quick shots off as she was a quick worker.  As I met up again with my dad, he informed me that while I had been focused on taking a photo of the nesting warbler, a Long-billed Curlew had flown over.  I was a little bummed on missing that bird, but was very pleased with being able to photograph the warbler.  We climbed back into the truck and drove to the flooded parking lot, with no success, before heading out to bird Waterton.
We left Chatfield and took the long way round to Waterton.   We got some great views of Vesper's Sparrow and Horned Lark, and finally picked up Turkey Vulture for the weekend.  The drive also produced a Western Bluebird and Bullock's Oriole.  We then pulled into the Waterton parking lot and were very excited to see what it had to offer.
As we crossed the street to enter Waterton, my dad jokingly made a bet that we would see a Bullock's Oriole in the cottonwood tree just around the bend.  No sooner did he say that then a pair of male orioles flew out from the tree, one hot on the tail of the other.  Lo and behold as we made the turn, yet another oriole was sitting there in the tree. Hence why we have come to call it, the Oriole Tree(ever need to show someone their life Bullock's Oriole, take them either here or to Barr Lake in May/June and they can't be missed). A few sparrows made an appearance as well and I finally saw a White-crowned Sparrow for the weekend.  We headed up the path into the canyon and were soon greeted by Spotted Towhee, and there were many of them here.  A different buzz got our attention and we tracked the sound down to a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. A fun little bird that my dad and I both love.   Heading further up the trail we heard a Yellow-breasted Chat calling from some trees, but were unable to locate it.   We walked along the river path but did not add any new birds to the list.  Once again joining the main trail, we quickly picked up Lazuli Bunting for our list.  Heading further into the canyon, we came to realize that the bird life was very much dead.  Very quiet with few singing other than a towhee or bunting every few dozen feet. A large bird flying off in the distance got my dad's attention, and we were happy to find it to be a Golden Eagle.  The birding for the rest of our walk through Waterton was very slow, outside of a Red-breasted Merganser fighting the current heading upstream on the river, providing great views and a fun viewing experience of this cool bird.  Upon exiting the canyon a couple hours later, we walked the trails at the Audubon Center and enjoyed views of some of the common birds we had been seeing.  We then headed back to the truck and decided to hit up one more place before heading home.
We pulled into the parking lot of Belmar Park to bird Kountze Lake.  We got out and were greeted with many common birds, as well as some Double-crested Cormorants and Snowy Egret. On one of the islands in the lake, two pairs of cormorants had a nest.  An egret foraged along the edge of the island, showing some of its fun hunting antics.  Gadwall and Mallard swam around but otherwise there was not much variety.  We walked around to the other viewing platform and saw a Spotted Sandpiper, as well as a female Mallard with eight ducklings.  We had a nice chat about birds and the outdoors with a lady, and then decided that it was time to head home and call an end to what had turned out to be a great Big Birding Weekend.
All told, we had 125 different bird species, over 1/4th of all the birds ever seen in Colorado, on our list for the two days.  We could not have been happier. We went to many great places, saw many great birds, had many a laugh and created a memory to last a lifetime.  I very much look forward to next years Big Birding Weekend.

Now that I am all caught up there, upcoming birding events include:
Barr Lake Bird Fest in September. I will post more info when I come across it.
My dad and I will be leading another bird walk at Two Ponds NWR before the summer is over as well, and I shall post more info about that as we get it finalized too.

I want to thank you all for reading my blog and please forgive me for having such a long dry spell. I will do my best not to let this happen again.

-Daniel-

Morning light at Chatfield. 

Osprey

Great Blue Heron and Osprey. 

Canada Goose resting in the top of a broken tree. 

White-faced Ibis flyover. 

Common Merganser

One of my favorite shots. The female Yellow Warbler at her nest. 

Vesper's Sparrow

Mountain Bluebird. Lighting was horrible. 

Double-crested Cormorant hanging out in Waterton Canyon. 

Red-breasted Merganser.

Watch a video here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qqDJ7Ad5os

Spotted Towhee. One of many in Waterton. 

Snowy Egret at Kountze Lake at Belmar Park. 

Watch the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDbfCO0pArY

The nesting island. 

Mama Mallard with her ducklings. 

The nesting cormorants. 

Closer shot of a Snowy Egret

Catching Up and California! and the Barr Lake Bird Fest!(in Sep)

Finally got internet in the new place! Left for vacation in California at the end of July and then came back and moved into a new apartment.  Apologies for the lack of postings.  But, I shall catch up on the wonderful trip I had to Cali!

We left the afternoon of the 20th of July for an eight day vacation to California. The trip was geared to see family so I knew I wouldn't get much birding in but planned to make the most of what time I had.  The good birds started shortly after we left Westminster.  A flock of Band-tailed Pigeons made an appearance in the mountains outside of Glenwood Springs, just a taste of the good birds that were yet to come.  Those were the best birds of the first day and we bunked down in Green River, Utah for the night.  The next day we headed out before sunup and were off, hoping to get to California by mid to late evening.  While driving through Richfield, UT, a brown bird all-of-a-sudden flew out in front of the vehicle and I hit it. I caught enough of a glimpse of it to be able to identify it as a California Quail when I got my bird book out at our breakfast stop.  First bird to add to my "hit with car" list.  The rest of the drive out was pretty uneventful birdwise, save for the rather large flock of House Sparrows that gathered around us as we shared our     In-N-Out french fries with them in Las Vegas.
Once we got to our first destination in Oceanside, CA, all I was able to add to the list was American Goldfinch, Anna's Hummingbird, and my all-time favorite, the Bushtit.  Birding proceeded rather slow for the next day, even when we visited Oceanside Beach.  Heerman's Gulls were out in force though, as well as some Western Gulls and a handful of Brown Pelicans.   The next day we left Oceanside for the likes of Disneyland, but just outside of Oceanside I picked up the one and only White-tailed Kite of the trip.  I was very happy to see this bird of prey as it is my all time favorite raptor.  Brown Pelicans floated along over the ocean, along with a few gulls but no other birds of note were spotted on this drive.
Disneyland was fun, yielding the expected assortment of House Sparrows, House Finch, Common Grackle, Mallard and European Starling, but it also delivered two rather nice birds in the Turkey Vulture(though I had seen these earlier in the trip, they were a nice bird to see at Disneyland) and a flock of three Great Egrets floating above the park.  Bushtits I soon found in the park, and they also proliferated the trees near our hotel, making me quite happy. The next day we packed up and headed to our final destination for the trip, Simi Valley.
We got into Simi Valley and after doing some visiting, headed off to the hotel.  I was pleasantly surprised again to find the trees around this hotel to be chock full of Bushtits! So for the three nights we were in Simi Valley, I always looked forward to returning to the hotel to see "my" Bushtits.  The following day, we made our way(after some begging on my part) to Rancho Simi Park, my ALL TIME favorite birding location, AND the location of my first ever birding excursion(way back when I was 14)! While the family went to have fun at the playground, I dragged the wife along to show her around my favoritest place on earth(Disneyland might be the happiest place on earth, but this is by far my favoritest!) and introduce her to the birds that got me into the hobby/passion I love so much now.  The usually assortment of Mallards, American Coot, Canada Geese, Rock Pigeon and feral waterfowl were making use of the small lake at the park. Though these are not really impressive birds, the shear numbers and how tame they are make it an interesting experience.  About a dozen Snowy Egrets(another one of my all time favorite birds) were roosting in the trees on one of the islands.  Eurasian-collared Doves were about, the first time I've ever seen them at the park.  Bushtits and some American Goldfinches were flitting through the trees, but this time I was unable to find any warblers.  The first Black Phoebe of the trip was soon found(love these birds too!) and a Costa's Hummingbird made an appearance as well.  I heard a chickadee like call and soon tracked down an Oak Titmouse foraging in a tree.  My wife and I both enjoyed watching a Snowy Egret forage in the canal behind the park, and a pair of Common Yellowthroats were foraging along the reeds and bushes as well.  Back in the park, I spotted a Spotted Dove roosting in a tree, only my second sighting of one of these birds and an Allen's Hummingbird went buzzing by as well(another second only sighting).  We spotted some turtles out on a log in the water, and a Double-crested Cormorant was seen as well, but our time to explore had unfortunately come to an end, and we headed out to do some more visiting.  While visiting with my grandma, the first Northern Mockingbird of the trip made an appearance, and two more were seen too. One of them started harassing an American Crow and put on a fun little show to watch.  After visiting for a couple hours, we headed out to Channel Islands harbor and beach for a little fun in the sun.  We walked around the harbor first and saw Heerman's Gulls, Western Gulls and Rock Pigeons, but then a Brandt's Cormorant made an appearance flying down the waterway.  After walking around for a little longer(the place has become a ghost town essentially), we headed out to the beach.  Some Forster's Terns, Brown Pelicans, Double-crested Cormorants and gulls were flying about.  I spent some time watching for other terns and see birds and found and photographed a tern that I couldn't identify, and since I had accidentally left my bird book at the hotel, would have to wait a while before I would be able to figure out what it was.  Another Brandt's Cormorant made an appearance, but no Pelagic Cormorants showed up.  Three small shorebirds flew out across the water but I was unable to get my binocs on them before they disappeared behind the breakwater.  Soon it was time to leave, this last location of birding for the trip, and head back to the hotel. A Red-shouldered Hawk made an appearance on the way back.  The Bushtits again greeted us when we arrived, a pleasant way to end the birding part of the California trip. After getting packed and ready for bed, I grabbed my camera and Kaufman Field Guide to figure out what that tern was that I saw.  After looking through my pics and studying the birds in the book, I was elated to discover it to be an Elegant Tern! This is a specialty bird for California and my 309th life bird! I had not been expecting to add a life bird on this trip so I was very excited about this bird. Great way to end the California trip!
The drive back to Colorado produced a Bald Eagle.  No other birds would be added to the list though. In total, I had seen 55 different bird species and added one bird to my life list.  I am really looking forward to the day I can return to California and bird there some more! For now though I am looking forward to two exciting birding events here in Colorado that are coming up next month!

EVENT 1:
The annual Barr Lake Birding Festival will be held September 8th this year.  It is great fun with many vendors, hawk rehabilitation groups, bird walks and birds to be seen! Last year my dad and I spotted 67 birds at the Festival, with about 75-80 species being seen in total.  There is a small State Parks fee that you have to pay, but this is definitely not to be missed! This is always the highlight of my birding year!

EVENT 2:
My dad and I will be leading a fourth and final(for the year) bird walk at Two Ponds NWR on September 22nd.  I will post the bird walk times when I get the rest of the information.  Dave Menough from Wild Birds Unlimited will be joining us and giving a presentation after the bird walk on how to choose binoculars.

Hope to see you all at both these events and happy birding!

An F-18 Raptor in Grand Junction.

Oceanside Pier at night.

A sand crab we dug up.

Western Gull at Oceanside Beach.

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A line of Brown Pelicans skimming the waters surface.

Heerman's Gull on sentry dutyl

Western Gull. 

A Mourning Dove nesting at my grandmother's house in Oceanside.

Attack of the Northern Mockingbird!

Feral geese at Rancho Simi Park. 

A feral duck.

American Coot.

Another feral duck.

Snowy Egrets 

Incoming!

The Oak Titmouse

Black Phoebe

Foraging Snowy Egret. I have this video up on my YouTube channel, BirdSpyFilms.

Looking over the lake.

"The Grove" as I call it.  Good place for warblers.

Another Heerman's Gull

Double-crested Cormorant overhead!

Impact! A tern just as it hit the water. Didn't get anything though.

Elegant Tern.

Up close with a Brown Pelican.