Rocky Mountain Arsernal NWR CO, Two Ponds NWR CO 11-25-09

I am finally posting the rest of our trip details, so I don't get too behind on posting my blogger updates.

On November 25, Alex and I drove to Rokcy Mountain Arsenal NWR.  Here we joined a bus tour of the refuge, since most of the refuge is not open to the public.  Highlights of the trip were numerous ferruginous hawks circling over prairie dog colonies, in addition to a prairie falcon, that flew right over our bus.  Alex spotted a snow goose in a flock of canada geese, and the volunteers that were giving the tour said they had never seen one on the refuge (rare in this part of CO).  Mule deer were also in rut and were everywhere.  At one point, we had to stop the bus and wait for one to get out of the road; he could not be concerned with the bus, as a female mule deer was on the other side.  We also saw shovelers and green-winged teal, the first on our trip.

snow goose at Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR

   

northern shoveler in Colorado

Next we travelled to Two Ponds NWR. This is a very small refuge in the middle of town, but still had a few good birds. This american kestrel did not seem to be concerned by our presence. Walking along the trails, we spotted house finches, blue jays, and white-crowned sparrows.

american kestrel at Two-Ponds NWR

white-crowned sparrow at Two-Ponds NWR

We also spotted this partial alabino red-tail hawk.  From below, it looked very normal, but its upperwing coverts were mostly white.  Alex has better photos here. Alex's blog  We ended the night just outside the border of Colorado in Kansas.

Rocky Mountain National Park 11/24/09

We set off for Rocky Mountain National Park early in the morning, only a few miles away from Estes Park.  Unfortunately most of the park is closed in the winter time due to the snow, but we still managed to see a ton of birds.  We started out by driving as high as we could to the end of the road.   Here we saw mountain chickadees and and abert's squirrel.  A flock of red crossbills also flew by.  Throughout the day we saw many more of each of these species. 

Near one of the park campgrounds, we came across a group of birds looking for handouts.  This included magpies, stellars jays, and clark's nutcracker, in addition to this abert's squirrel.

Abert's squirrel

Stellar's Jay

Clark's nutcracker

black-billed magpie

Also in the campground were 5 coyotes roaming around.  They seemed pretty habituated to people and were ignoring all of the cars that were stopping to photograph them.

At another park road, we saw a flock of red crossbills fly over.  We quickly pulled over and went into the woods to find them, and heard many other chirps.  Here we found more mountain chickadees, red-breasted nuthatches (very plentiful in the park), and a pair of red crossbills working on some pinecones.

male red crossbill

female red crossbill

mountain chickadee

On our way out of the park, we pulled over to find about 10 pygmy nuthatches, life birds for both Alex and I.  We continued out of the park, and on our way back into Estes Park, we were stuck in a small traffic jam due to a herd of elk gathering in the town.

We then headed to a river in Estes Park, where we heard we could find American Dippers.  After about 20 minutes of searching, Alex spotted this one working its way up river.

Fall Road trip, days 1 and 2

Alex arrived in Rapid City on Friday, November 20.  From the airport, we went to Canyon Lake Park, where we found all the same birds I had been seeing during the previous week.  Here is Alex scoping out the lake.

The next day, we left Rapid City and drove to Mt. Rushmore.  Here is Alex and I at Mt. Rushmore

We found this brown creeper on a nature trail at Mt. Rushmore

brown creeper

Next, we headed for Custer State Park.  Here, we saw many pronghorns and bison, including this herd of pronghorn crossing the road.

In our travels through the Black Hills, we came across 6 gray jays foraging in the road.  I finally got some good pictures of them.

We also saw a prairie falcon and two golden eagles.

Our next stop was Wind Cave National Park.  There was a herd of 105 pronghorn in one area, and also two bald eagles in a prairie dog colony.

bald eagle and pronghorn

prairie dog gathering nesting material

We then headed to the park headquarters and did a one hour tour of part of the wind caves.  Currently there are 133 miles of caves known, and more are discovered with every expedition trip.

"cave popcorn" in Wind Cave

"boxwork" formation in Wind Cave

american crow, Wind Cave National Park

After spending the night in Hot Springs, South Dakota, we headed for Laramie, with a few stops along the way.  Here are the highlights.

ferruginous hawk (rufous morph) in WY

(same bird as above)

Throughout the day we saw 9 golden eagles.  This one was near Pathfinder NWR, where we saw most of

them on HWY 220.

black-billed magpie

golden eagle

We ended the day in Laramie, which seems to be covered in snow.  Hopefully there isn't too much snow.  Tomorrow we will head towards Estes Park, with an ultimate destination of Rocky Mountain National Park, before checking out a few wildilfe refuges on the way.