April 2-10, 2-13
Day 1 - As can be the case when you are relying on flights from a couple corners of the earth, both Ian and Diana’s flights were delayed…Ian’s for more than
7 hours! I was glad that I had not run the tour as I did last year, leaving Denver in the afternoon for Wray, thus deleting a hotel night in Denver. In this case, I would have been in big trouble and in the future will continue to have Denver as the first night, just in case!
Day 2 - We left Denver under threatening skies and wet highways from a good rain the night before. It was a good thing, as is the case with much of the west right now it is way too dry in Colorado, particularly eastern Colorado! I felt like the rain was a good thing and that it could only help our chances of seeing lots of happy, wet birds! We made a one hour drive from Denver to our first birding stop north of Wiggins on the South fork of the Platte River. It was a good place to catch up with some old friends. By that I mean the ducks of numerable species and Canada Geese that were in the river. We continued on to Jackson Lake State Park on the way stopping at a very nice roadside pond where we were treated to a Noah’s Ark display of ducks. There were not big numbers of anything except species variety! We had Buffleheads, Cinnamon, Green-winged and Blue Winged Teal, Mallards, Redheads, Canvas Back, Lesser Scaup…a true duck –o-rama.
We left the Jackson Resevoir and headed into the town of Wiggins for lunch. I had noticed a rather local looking café on the way out called Dave’s Diner, so we stopped in for a bite to eat. We were not disappointed! The waitresses were top notch and fun (especially the 27 year old pregnant one with her 5th on the way!) and the food was perfect roadside-diner good! I had the Reuben which was made with homemade corned beef…fantastic!
Then it was on to Wray and on 4 p.m. meeting with Bob Bledsoe, a local rancher who has been helping birders see Greater Prairie Chickens on his ranch for many years. We met Bob at the headquarters of his ranch north of Wray and got to know each other a bit. He is a very interesting and generous person who truly loves those birds and understands the importance of helping the population stay healthy. I really enjoyed getting the ranchers’ perspective and having the opportunity to get onto to this very large and well-run cattle operation that has 100 active Greater Prairie Chicken leks on it! An amazing number!
Bob took us out to the lek that afternoon so that we would know how to get to it on our own the next day. As we pulled up to the gate by the Lek, 9 male birds flew from the area, a good sign indeed! Bob had parked a couple of old pick-ups (like 2012s…welcome to ranching in the 21st century!) near the Lek so that the birds would be comfortable around cars, which is a great idea as we found out in spades the next morning. Once we knew the way, we said our goodbyes to Bob and he left us to ponder the Lek and do as we pleased. We hung around for a while and then headed back to town for a quick run out to Stauker Lake which turned out to be really quiet before going to our hotel…the Lark Bunting Inn, a wonderful little place in Wray run by Pam and Larry Neuschwanger.
We ended up having dinner at a cool local joint called 4th and Main. Awesome huge steaks and lots of local color!
Day 3– After sneaking out of the B&B without waking anyone, we drove out to the Lek at 4:45 a.m., getting there with plenty of time to spare. It took a
short eternity before we started to hear Prairie Chickens calling in the distance. Soon we had them entering the lek and in good numbers. It was a chilly morning at 28 degrees and the frost was a bit thick on the ground. As the sun rose, we had a number of males displaying within a few yards of our vehicle. I joked at one point that one might jump up onto one of Bob’s trucks and do a display dance. Within minutes it actually happened and we all got a good laugh out of it! Eventually, the show waned but it took a long time. The birds were really fired up! We even had one male trying to display from a fence post as we turned around to leave! Leaving the lek, we had to open and close a couple of gates and when we arrived at one of them we were greeted by a couple hundred young cows that were waiting for their breakfast to arrive! It was a bit of our own dance getting through the herd and up to the gate that we had to open. I enlisted my cow-poking past and convinced the herd that it was best to back off as Ian drove the car through the gate and I quickly closed it. Last thing I wanted to have to do was explain to Bob why 200 of his cows were out roaming around eastern Colorado and not on his land! Once back at the B&B, we were treated to one of the best breakfasts I have had in a long time. Pam whipped up an amazing French toast that was enjoyed by all. After breakfast, as we packed up and as we got ready to go Paulette found a tree full of Cedar Waxwings across the street. We had a good time showing our hosts the birds and maybe instilling a bit of birding vibe into them. We then had a drive through the endless wheat fields to Bonny Lake, where we were immediately treated to views of what remains an unidentified owl, probably Great Horned but just didn’t get a good enough look. We also found a Downy Woodpecker, Wild Turkeys everywhere and a lot of ducks on the ever drying lake. I thought I was a real hero when out of the blue I stopped at the ‘town’ of First View, which was made up of little more than an old grain elevator, to look for a Barn Owl…and, low and behold, one was there! Then we got to Nee Gronda where we found two more Barn Owls but not too much else. We had dinner at the Hickory House, home of ribs and the best brisket in Lamar. We spent
the night at the Lamar Country Acres Motel where we had the Fishermen’s room, Planetarium room and the ‘Fort’. A fun place with amazingly nice beds and the managers were awesome. I told him that we were leaving at 4 a.m. and he offered to get up and make us coffee! I told him not to worry about it, but at 3:45 there he was with a fresh pot of coffee ready to go! This was service beyond the expected!
Day 4 – Today’s target bird was the Lesser Prairie Chicken, a bird that is a whisker away from being put on the endangered list and probably should have been listed years ago. There is really only one reliable and somewhat easily accessible lek where these birds can be seen. To get there and be relatively certain of seeing the bird, you need the expertise of Fred and Norma Dorenkamp. They have been taking folks to see the chickens for years and are the perfect hosts!
We had to leave the hotel at 3:45 a.m. to meet Fred in his big old school bus in Holly at 4:30 a.m! We got there 10 minutes early which was fine with me. Fred showed up with the big school bus/Prairie Chicken blind and a few other willing folks to go out to the Lesser Prairie Chicken lek. I went to sleep immediately upon pulling out of the convenience store and only woke up as we were hitting the bouncy dirt road to the lek!
It seemed like kind of a long time before anything started happening…long enough to really see how different the situation is for the Lesser Prairie Chickens
than the Greater Prairie Chickens. The Lessers are surrounded by the lights of civilization and the impact of humans and their development…you can see the creeping of development in the light shine in the distance and all around the lek. From where we saw the Greater Prairie Chicken’s you could not see one light from any human source, only the moon and the stars. One major bother was the constant flashing lights of the circular irrigation systems. This blinking tells the farmer that the system is working. Why not only do this when it is not!? Now it is easy to understand why the Lessers are in such big trouble as they are quickly running out of room.
We ended up seeing about 15 birds. At one point, they all flew off when a Northern Harrier Hawk used our bus as a blind (just as we were) to sneak up on the Prairie Chickens. But within about 10 minutes they all flew back into the lek and continued their posturing and dancing. At about 7:15, it was all over and we headed back to Holly and then out to Fred and Norma’s house for a nice breakfast. They are really wonderful people.
Then, we were out of there and headed in the direction of La Veta for the night. Along the way, we stopped once again at Nee Gronda but even fewer birds were there, except for the chickens…finding other birds can be a bit tough this early in the season. Along the way we found an enormous flock of Snow Geese in a field and tried to get closer to a pond that looked to be full of birds. Alas, it was all closed off, but we did pick up a nail or something that gave us a slow leaking tire. Fortunately, this fancy car
that the rental place gave me as an upgrade had a tire pressure system that warned me of the problem and I was able to get to a repair situation before it went to flat to drive on. That situation was the home of a cool guy named David (once again, something about those guys named Dave) who we ran into on the street in the town of Hasty. I could tell the second I met him that he would take care of us and was happy to do it. David had a tire plugging kit and an air compressor in his garage and within 30 minutes had us fixed up well enough to get to Animas and a proper tire repair place. It was really cool. His wife and daughter came home while we were there and invited us in to wait, then offered up drinks…very sweet and down to earth people.
Next stop after the drive across the long expanse of not much, was a neat little private impoundment called Lake Maria, about 6 miles east of Interstate 25. It was full of stuff! Clark’s and Western Grebes hanging out together, tons of ducks including Golden Eyes, our first Sandhill Crane and Cackling Geese, which were a great surprise.
We then drove on to the funky little town of La Veta and the very nice La Veta Inn for some relaxation and an excellent dinner at the hotel.
Day 5 – We started off this morning with some feeder birding, mostly looking for Evening Grosbeaks or anything else that might be around. Things were decidedly slow at the feeders so we drove up the hill towards the ski area where we were treated to bands of nuthatches and lots of Pine Siskins. Back in town we did finally get our looks at Evening Grosbeaks before hitting the road for points east.
We made a stop in the big sage brush plain of the San Luis Valley where we easily found Sage Thrashers but dipped on Sage Sparrows who most likely had not yet returned for the spring. We made the customary stop at the Russell Lakes State Wildlife Area and birded the shallow ponds and walked the trails. As the weather turned for the worse, we finished the 100 mile drive to Gunnison and continued on to check out the Lek for the morning trip to find the
Gunnison Sage Grouse. After scoping out our spot for the morning, we did a short drive up the canyon and on the return actually saw a grouse fly over the road! We spent the night at the very clean and organized Long Holiday Motel, a wonderful place to stay and had a wonderful dinner at Garlic Mike’s along with all of the kids and their prom dates!
Day 6 – We were out of the hotel at 4:45 a.m. and made a quick trip at a convenience store for coffee before making the 20 minute drive out to the lek. When we got there, we found several other cars already there. I kind of got in trouble for parking on the other side of the trailer, but if they don’t want people to park there, why do they park the group van there and not put up a sign telling people not to park there!? I parked there last year and no one said a thing! Oh well…I didn’t move and it turned out to be the best spot for sure!
I was getting a bit worried when it seemed to be taking for ever for the birds to show themselves, I may have actually not been looking in the right area at first so they may have been out earlier. I did eventually find them and got everyone on to them. Admittedly, it was not a great view and they were far away, but there was no fog, not too cold and there was no wind, so the conditions for viewing were really good. As it got lighter, I passed the scope around and eventually everyone was getting good views of this bird that is typically not very cooperative on the lek. Compared to last year, this year’s looks were stellar. The light kept getting better and better and eventually all the birds flew off the lek. At this point, they opened up the viewing trailer and out filed the birders. Little did they or the volunteer, for that matter, know that 7 males returned
to the lek and were going at it even with all the slamming of the bathroom door and the high fives being passed around. The volunteer was a bit embarrassed when he figured out that we were looking at birds on the lek. He is not supposed to let anyone out of the trailer until all birds are gone. Oh well…the birds could have cared less about us being there and I put the scope back on the tripod and gave everyone probably the best looks of the morning. It was a great way to start the day.
We went back to town and checked out of the hotel and headed on over to the W Café on the main drag, their sign reads “where the locals eat”. Indeed, it was packed with locals but the service was exceptionally fast and we were treated to some awesome homemade breakfast food including some absolutely huge three egg omelets, obviously ostrich eggs!
Then it was a side trip on up to Crested Butte. The weather was getting worse, which is good for finding Rosy Finches. Indeed, once we were in Crested Butte we did find quite a few Brown-capped Rosy-finches, Pine Grosbeaks and a surprisingly high number of Common Redpolls, a bit south of their normal range.
Then back to Gunnison and on to the Gunnison River lakes that lined highway 50. We had some ducks a few grebes but the water level was really low. We did pick up a Song Sparrow and an American Pipit at the first dam area.
Most of the afternoon was on the road but eventually we did find a Gambell’s Quail in a subdivision outside of Grand Junction. Dinner at the Ale House was awesome and we spent the night at the Courtyard Hotel and wondering about the predicted blizzard that was to hit Colorado tonight and tomorrow and how that might affect our birding.
Day 7 – The day started out with a better than expected breakfast at the Courtyard Hotel in Grand Junction. Our waitress was from Casas Grandes,
Chihuahua…how random is that? She was pretty blown away when I told her that I actually stay there on a couple of tours that I run!
Colorado National Monument is where the weather started to change for the worse. Lots of wind but we still managed to see some good birds and take in some fantastic scenery. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center. On the way out of the Visitor’s Center we were nearly windshield smacked by a Juniper Titmouse which eventually came into to give us very nice views, a bird we had been looking for all morning! We also had good looks at Pinyon Jays for the first time as well as a Red-naped Sapsucker, Mountain Chickadees and Red-breasted Nuthatches.
We then went on to the town of Palisades for a nice lunch at a neat local restaurant before heading up I-70 and highway 13 and the town of Craig. We made a couple of stops along the way at some lakes including the Meeker ponds where we padded the day list on ducks once again!
We checked into the Deer Park Hotel and then went out to take a look at the Sharp-tailed Grouse lek areas in preparation for tomorrow. It was not too birdy out there, but the idea was mostly to see if anything had changed since I was there the previous year.
We had dinner out by the golf course at a place called the Tin Cup. The food was really nice, an awesome steak and nice atmosphere out in the middle of nowhere
Day 8 – We were out of the hotel at 4:45 a.m., stopped at a store for coffee and were on the lek by 5:20 a.m. We waited for a long time, very patiently, for the Sharp-tailed Grouse to show that never happened. Not sure if it was a factor of the weather or just bad luck, but we dipped on the Grouse.
The big downside of waiting so long the Sharp-tailed Grouse was that it really cut into our chances of seeing the Dusky Grouse. So by the time we got to the Dusky Grouse spot it was already too late and we dipped on them too!
We did the hard drive to Steamboat in ever-deteriorating weather conditions for a nice brunch at Winona’s which was awesome. Then up Rabbit Ear’s Pass which was fine until we got to the top. It was a true blizzard at this point, with lots of blowing snow which made the road almost impossible to see on numerous occasions! Fortunately, the roads were not closed so we made it easily to Walden.We went immediately up to Moose Visitor Center to look for Rosy Finches but there were none to be had, we did add Chipping Sparrow to the list however. We then made our way up a bit higher looking for Three-toed Woodpeckers, but the weather was terrible and really cold now…15 degrees! With little bird activity we headed back down the mountain and out to the Greater Sage Grouse lek just to make sure that the roads were ok and see if it had been active. Later, we saw a ton of birds at the Walden ponds late in the afternoon and then came back to the hotel for dinner
April 9 – We were out of the hotel in good form and on the lek at the perfect time. Fortunately the evenings snow fall was a lot less than anticipated so getting out there was no problem and what had fallen added a nice effect to the morning. Soon, we heard the faint booming of Greater Sage Grouse echoing around us. Unfortunately, due to the clearing of the skies, the temperature had
plummeted during the night, at one point the gauge on the car read zero degrees outside! So, because we had to keep the windows down to hear and see the birds, this actually happened to be the interior temperature as well! Eventually we had over 75 birds on the lek including males and females, and incredible show in the light dusting of fresh snow!
We went back to town for breakfast and ran into another group of birders at the restaurant. They turned us on to a feeder spot just before the Moose
Visitor Center that had all the Rosy Finches the day before. So, after packing up, we charged up the hill once again and found the home we had been referred to. The man of the house was super nice and was happy to accommodate us with some time watching his feeders. Immediately, all of the Rosy Finches were there as were Pine Grosbeaks and lots of other stuff too! When we left, we gave the owner 20 bucks to help with his seed costs, always good to have a slam dunk spot for birds like that! Certainly, the poor weather in the high country had driven the birds down the slope…some more good luck for us!
We made a couple of more stops going over the mountains looking for woodpeckers and again for Dippers on the
east side of the Rockies. Then it was out into the Pawnee Grasslands for one last hunt for Mountain Plover. It was a bit of a fool’s errand with all the snow on the ground, but we had a tip from some other birders to a spot that had been good in the past. We didn’t get a plover, but Paulette did pull a McCown’s Longspur out of a bunch of Lark Sparrows, a great bird and the only one of the tour!
Then it was back to Denver for some much deserved rest and some goodbyes. Thanks for the great tour and wonderful that Ian got the Mountain Plover from the hotel shuttle bus on the way to the airport!
Indeed one did finally dance on the roof of a truck!
Greater Prairie Chicken
Barn Owl
Just some of the cool stuff in my room in Lamar
Fred and Norma's place outside of Lamar
getting our tire fixed
Gunnison Sage Grouse leking
Mountain Bluebird
Ian and Diana at Colorado National Monument
Rabbit Ears pass was pretty good compared to the road to Walden!
Brown-capped Rosy-finch
Greater Sage Grouse's displaying