K B Srinivas: Birding at Colorado

In 2021 when the covid situation was cooling down we planned a trip to Denver to meet a friend. I wanted to utilize this situation to do some birding as well. Colorado has some birds which I wanted to see. Had compiled a list and noted down some birding spots that I wanted to visit and dedicated a day for the same.

My first birding of the trip started when we were in Colorado Springs. We visited Garden of Gods to look at the majestic mountains and especially at Dusk or Dawn. The mountains looked beautiful. Looking at the ebird report for this place I found there was a nesting pair of Prairie Falcons. Also White-throated Swifts, Vaux's Swift and Violet-green Swallows were reported near these cliffs nesting. When we were there near the parking lot I saw my first Black-billed Magpie, beautiful bird. I found few more magpies when walking around in the park. I saw a Spotted Towhee carrying some bugs to a nest close to the cliffs. There were couple of deer's walking around without worrying about people. Infact they were so close you could touch them, it was strange. I did see quite a few White-throated Swifts flying in and out of the holes on the cliffs. Saw couple of Violet-green swallows flying too. But did not see the Vaux's swift.

Black-billed Magpie

Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay

Spotted Towhee

Prairie Falcon

Violet Green-swallow

White-throated Swift

I had listed down to visit the Pawnee Grasslands to see the Longspurs and the Buntings there. Based on the ebird reports I shortlisted this place. I came down very early in the morning. It's a pretty vast grassland. I was hoping to see some raptors as well here. When I came into the grasslands the first bird I saw were the Lark Buntings. The male and female Buntings could be seen everywhere. The other bird I saw the most were Horned Larks. They were in the grasslands and sometimes on the road too. Saw a lone Brewer's sparrow which I wasn't sure at the beginning, I had seen one during my Arizona trip but wasn't expecting to see it again here. The other birds that I was hoping to find were Mountain Plovers and the Burrowed Owls, I could not find either of them. Maybe I should have stopped and walked few trails but I did not know of any walking trails here. I also saw couple of Grasshoppers Sparrow which were on my wish list. I did not see many raptors here. The only ones I saw were few Red-tailed Hawks. I did see few Common Nighthawks resting on these fence poles. I was also lucky to find both male and female Thick-billed Longspurs(earlier called McCown's Longspurs). I saw some birds which were on my wish list but did miss some birds.

Lark Sparrow

Western Meadowlark

Bullock's Oriole

Lark Bunting

Brewer's Sparrow

Horned Lark

Western Meadowlark

Common NightHawk

Thick-billed Longspur

Thick-billed Longspur(Female)

Lark Bunting

Say's Phoebe

Grasshopper Sparrow

Lark Bunting(Female)

After visiting Pawnee grassland drove down to Staunton State Park. I wanted to see the Mountain bluebirds and the Mountain Chickadee here. There were reports of the Clark's Nutcracker as well here. So wanted to try my luck with them. I did see only one Mountain Chickadee here which was flying all over the place. Saw multiple White-breasted Nuthatches along with Pygmy Nuthatches.

Mountain Chickadee

White-breasted Nuthatch

Eastern Bluebird

Pygmy Nuthatch

White-crowned Sparrow

Canada Goose(goslings :-))

After this me and my friend visited the Barr Lake. This is his favorite birding spot during the winters when you can see lot of Bald Eagles. When we went we did see lot of Cave Swallows, Pelicans and Cormorants. Saw couple of House-Wrens carrying food to their nests. There were couple of Eastern and Western Kingbirds. My main target here was to see the Western Grebes. We did get to see 4 Western Grebes swimming across the lake. As a bonus got to see the Bald Eagle too which was far but took a shot for my records.