We returned to the scenic Colorado National Monument Sunday morning, April 10.
Two members of the jay family were the early stars.
The pinyon jay can be hard to find. This one was cooperative and posed nicely.
The Woodhouse's Scrub-jay found a nice perch overlooking the canyon.
As beautiful as the birds were, the scenery was the real star.
In a nearby neighborhood, we saw some Gambel's Quails crossing the road. This picture was taken from inside the van and is a bit out of focus, but the bird is too good not to share.
We drove to Black Canyon in Gunnison National Park and quickly located our primary target, the Dusky Grouse. We had a brief look, but no chance for a photo.
A Townsend's Solitaire was more than willing to show off.
Monday morning was another early start. We were up at 4:30 to drive to the Waunita Hot Springs lek where we could see the rare Gunnison Sage-grouse. There are only about 4,000 individuals left in the world, and they are all in or near Colorado. We were surprised to see a sign saying the lek was closed as we drove up in the darkness at 5:30. It seems the powers that be decided the birds needed a week off from visitors so that their mating ritual is not interrupted. Our tour leader was very diplomatic and eventually was told we could come back after the birds had an hour and a half to themselves. We headed back to town for a proper breakfast and were welcomed back at the appointed time. We really needed the explicit directions we were given, because the birds were very far away and hard to see. We were not allowed to leave the van, so we had to take turns sitting in the front passenger seat to look through the scope and see little dots with long tail feather in the distance. After a coyote sauntered by the birds, they decided it was time to scatter in all directions. One landed within a couple hundred yards of our vehicle. The
Gunnison Sage-grouse looks almost exactly like the Greater Sage-grouse, which might help explain why there was only one other van there.
Mammals have also been a highlight of the trip. I saw a mountain goat as we headed toward the continental divide. We also saw a small group of bighorn sheep by the side of the road.
Then we saw two large herds of elk.
We made several more stops as we headed east through Colorado. We saw many birds including five species of Grebes: Western, Clark's, Horned, Eared, and Pied-billed.
We saw lots of waterfowl, including this gadwall.
Swainson's hawk was a new bird for me. We watched it eating a Eurasian collared- Dove.
Tuesday morning we headed south from La Junta to Higbee Valley Road.
Later stops included John Martin Reservoir and Lake Hasty. I did not add any bird to my year list, but we saw lots of new birds for the trip list. Some highlights were snow goose, rough-legged hawk, northern pintail, wild turkey, and long-tailed duck.
As we entered Kansas, there much was not see other than tumbleweeds. It's not hard to imagine why Dorothy wanted to leave.
Just before we pulled into out hotel in Scott City we saw about 150 turkey vultures circling. There was also a lone great-tailed grackle on the ground - my only new bird for the day.
My current count is 368 which puts me in the top 20 for the USA this year.
While checking the stats I noticed that Phil Chaon, my guide in Hawaii, is now
#1 in the world for the year with 1,391 species.