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U.S.A. -- COLORADO
13 - 22 April 2001
by Albert Filemyr
A Chicken Odyssey -- A Journey across Colorado in search of chickens,
rosy-finches and western specialties
Participants: Adrian Binns, Erica Brendel, Bert Filemyr, Lynn Jackson,
Karl Lukens, Martin
Selzer, Chris Walters, Frank Windfelder
Day 1
The group met as planned at the Denver International Airport and we
set-off into the field around 11:30. Our first stops were the
roads and fields behind the airport where we picked up 6 Burrowing
Owls, Western Meadowlarks, Horned Larks, Black-billed Magpies;
Cinnamon, Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal. We then headed to
Pearson Park in Fort Lupton and found the three Great-horned Owl Chicks
on the nest with one of their parents nearby, an Eurasian
Collared-dove, a Lincoln Sparrow and our first Swainson’ s Hawk.
The birds at Lower Latham Reservoir were far away and poorly lit, but
the birds in the area of Loloff Reservoir were just the opposite.
At Loloff, we had a spectacular breeding plumage Eared Grebe, Redheads,
Canvasbacks, Lesser and Greater Scaup; Snow, Ross’s and Canada Geese
and American Avocets. In the cattails, we had Yellow-headed
Blackbirds and one Great-tailed Grackle. Our last stop before
Wray was the USDA center in Akron where we picked up Blue Jay and
Long-eared Owl. We ended the day at the Wray Museum for our
orientation talk on the Greater-Prairie Chicken Lek. Night in
Wray.
Day 2
We departed for the chicken lek at 4:45 and were in the blind a little
after 5. After getting everyone settled, we opened the door and
soon heard the males calling in the darkness. As it slowly got
lighter, we could see the Prairie Chickens scurrying around on the lek
and they were slowly moving in towards the blind. By the time it
began getting light, at least 20 birds were on the lek. Shortly
thereafter, the first females came onto the lek. As we watched
and listened, at least 35 individuals (18 males/17 females) were
interacting on the lek where we could observe them. Around 7AM,
the females started to leave the lek and we left about 15 minutes later
to have breakfast at the Kitzmilller Grazing Association.
We left Wray, headed for the Pawnee National Grasslands and arrived
there around 11:30. Shortly after turning onto RD 100, Erica
spotted a good bird and we all headed off into the grasses to find our
first McCown’s Longspurs. Except for Horned Larks and Western
Meadowlarks, the grasslands were quiet but we persisted and were
rewarded with a flock of 9 Long-billed Curlews, 4 Mountain Plovers
(including a pair we watched exchange places on a nest site). We
ended our birding in the Pawnee around 5:00PM at the USDA Research
facility above Nunn on Route 85 were we found 300+ McCown’s Longspurs
and a handful of Chestnut-collared Longspurs. We headed back to
Latham Reservoir where we had two Franklin’s Gulls including one with a
very rosy-colored breast and some American Coots. Night in Aurora.
Day 3
We started our day with 90 minutes of birding at Cherry Creek
Reservoir/State Park. Highlights at the park were Pied-billed,
Clark’s and Western Grebes, Ruddy Duck, Black-Crowned Night-Herons,
Osprey and a Bonaparte’s Gull. We returned to the motel for
breakfast before checking out at 8:45. We then headed to the
southeastern corner of the state on Route 70 to 71. Although this
was a relatively quiet stretch, we were treated to a young Golden Eagle
hunting Black-tailed Jackrabbits. The eagle missed only because
the rabbits separated and made a beeline to a fencerow.
We eventually arrived in Rocky Ford at 11:50 and found the Sewage
Treatment Plant where we were treated to more Franklin’s and
Bonaparte’s Gulls, American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts, Least
Sandpipers and a good assortment of ducks. We stopped at Holbrook
Lake (lots of Yellow-headed Blackbirds), Cheraw Lake (Horned, Western,
Clark’s and Earned Grebes) before moving on the Ft. Lyons area.
A stop at “Van’s Grove” yielded White-eyed Vireo, Eastern Phoebe and
White-crowned Sparrows. For the butterfly enthusiasts the grove
held, Mourning Cloak, Painted Lady, Olympia Marble, and Red
Admiral. We then headed to the Hasty Cemetery and the Hasty Lake
Campground. At the campground, we had several Yellow-rumped
Warblers, Chipping Sparrows and a Yellow-throated Warbler (in the line
of trees to the north of the bathroom). We ended the day at
Neeskah Reservoir where we found two Snowy Plovers. Night in
Springfield, where we ran into Mary Gustafson and Bruce Peterjohn at
the motel.
Day 4
Today was our day at the Lesser Prairie Chicken lek in Campo.
This meant another very early start as we were staying in Springfield
that is about 50 minutes from the lek. We left the motel at 4AM
and we were in place at the lek by 5AM. Adrian, Erica, and Karl
went into the blind and the rest of us stayed in the van. Around
5:15, we heard the first calls of the chickens as they moved onto the
lek. With the first light, we saw 5 males displaying on the
lek. Although the number of birds was far fewer than on the
Greater Prairie Chicken lek in Wray, we all thought the Lessers were
more striking. Their combs seemed brighter yellow and their
markings, although more subtle, were very distinctive. Other
wildlife sightings included Lark Sparrows, Meadowlarks, and two
Pronghorns.
After sunrise, the group in the blind crawled out and made their way
back to the van. To say the blind was small and cramped would be
an understatement. Even Erica commented that it was a tight
fit. Frank, who had the opportunity to go in the blind and twice
entered only to eventually settle in the van, stated, “not staying in
the blind was the best decision he made in his life!!” We headed to
breakfast in Campo and on the way picked up a Northern Mockingbird and
a young Ferruginous Hawk. After breakfast at the Campo
Café and checking out of the motel we headed to the Comanche
National Grasslands in search of sparrows and Scaled Quail (we found
3). We eventually found a few more Lark, Vesper, and Savannah
Sparrows. At a drainage culvert, we found side-by-side Chipping
and Clay-colored Sparrows. Swainson’s Hawks were everywhere.
As we returned to the highway, we had a Prairie Falcon zooming down a
rise in the grasslands. Fortunately, we had several more
opportunities to observe Prairie Falcons in the grasslands and
Cottonwood Canyon area. After spending the morning in the
grasslands, we entered Cottonwood Canyon and marveled at the change in
habitat. We were almost immediately rewarded with a Canyon
Towhee, a nesting pair of Mountain Bluebirds, a pair of Vermillion
Flycatchers, several Townsend’s Solitaires, Chihuahuan Ravens, and a
Ladder-backed Woodpecker. Farther down the canyon, we had a few
Western Scrub Jays, and a Hairy Woodpecker. At the “primitive”
campground, we found two Lewis’s Woodpeckers and called up two Western
Screech Owls. While the owls answered us for several minutes and
were calling strongly as we left, they couldn’t be coaxed into
view. As we exited the canyon, we stumbled across a small group
on Rough-winged Swallows working a stream, a pair of Wood Ducks and a
Rock Wren at the Carrizo Campground. From here we more or less
headed straight to Pueblo with a few stops for more looks at the
various raptors of the grasslands. Night in West Pueblo.
Day 5
Today we headed into the Rockies and left the grasslands behind.
As we loaded the van at the motel, we had a few more Scaled Quail and a
Curved-billed Thrasher. Our first birding stop was Brush Hollow
State Wildlife Area that we birded from 7:30-8:45. Our main
target here was Juniper Titmouse. The titmouse took some effort
but eventually we all got on to a pair of them. We also had
another Ladder-backed Woodpecker, more Western Scrub-Jays, Townsend
Solitaires and a Canyon Wren calling. We next moved onto the
Arkansas River Walkway in Canon City from 9-9:45. Although we
dipped out on the primary target here (two immature Harris’s Sparrows),
we did add two Bewick’s Wrens, a Black Phoebe, (which had just been
found on Saturday and was a second county record) and a White-breasted
Nuthatch.
We moved on to the Royal Gorge Nature Center that had been home to two
Black Rosy-finches earlier in the winter and still had one coming to
the feeders. While looking for the feeders, we had a Mountain
Chickadee and lots of White-throated Swifts in the gorge.
Eventually, Bert wandered far enough around the nature center (which
was closed) and found the feeders. We immediately found a very
well fed, Black Rosy-finch. We spent about 20 minutes at the
nature center and more than half of that was spent finding the
feeders. We’re obviously better with birds than we are with
feeders!
We picked up lunch at the Safeway in Salida and drove to the scenic
overlook in Buena Vista for a picnic lunch. Besides a gorgeous
view, we hoped for Pinyon Jays that are reported to be very
prevalent. You couldn’t prove that by us although we did have the
first Clark’s Nutcracker of the trip. We continued on to Granite
where the two Gray-crowned Rosy-finches were still coming into a feeder
and Violet-green Swallows hawked insects over the Arkansas River.
There were also two Chukars feeding beneath the feeders and some
members of the group started updating their lifelists. Erasers
were quickly brought out when a local told us he had released several
birds in the past two years and that “He keeps them as pets.” After
ticking off our second Rosy-finch of the day, we headed on to Loveland
Ski Basin.
At Loveland the flock of rosy-finches was scared away from the feeder
as we arrived so we set up camp and waited. One Gray-crowned
Rosy-finch remained at the feeder and we waited for the rest of the
flock to return. While we waited, we watched Mountain and
Black-capped Chickadees at the feeders and skiers and snowboarders
getting on the lift. A male Pine Grosbeak helped ease our
wait. After about 20-30 minutes, the flock returned. There
were approximately 125 rosy-finches in total. The vast majority
were Gray-crowned but we were able to discern 3 Hepburn’s Gray-crowned
Rosy-finches, 10-20 Black Rosy-finches and 5-10 Brown-capped
Rosy-finches. Although the Brown-capped presented a bit of an
identification challenge, a breeding plumage male perched on top of the
feeders to lay any qualms to rest. Besides the initial male Pine
Grosbeak, a second male and a female Pine Grosbeak all came into the
feeder as we watched the rosy-finches.
We then checked into the motel in Georgetown and headed out to Golden
Gate Canyon State Park and Crawford Gulch Road where a pair of Northern
Pygmy-Owls was reportedly setting up territory. Recently, a pair
of Blue Grouse was also reported along this stretch of road. We
arrived at the spot around 5 and spread out along the road to cover the
reported sighting locations. After about 30 minutes of searching,
Karl and Martin heard a pygmy-owl call. As they waiting for the
group to join them and bring the tape, Martin found the owl sitting in
a tree not 10 feet off the road and 15 feet up. He didn’t know
whether he saw the bird fly in or if it just moved. Either way,
scopes were set up and everyone had good long looks at this bird.
We then spread out again, this time in hopes of Blue Grouse.
About 20 yards up the road from the owl, which hadn’t moved, a Blue
Grouse was calling up the hillside. Unfortunately, the grouse
didn’t respond to the tape and the hillside was on private property so
we called it a “Most Successful Day” and headed to dinner. Night
in Georgetown.
Day 6
We checked out of the motel at 6:45 and headed for some feeders in
downtown Georgetown that had a small flock of Evening Grosbeaks coming
to them. Sure enough about 6-10 grosbeaks and 3 Cassin’s Finches
were coming into the feeders. The homeowner came out to get his
morning paper and greeted us. We then headed to breakfast at ‘The
Happy Cooker’. After a wonderful breakfast, we headed up Guanella
Pass Road at 8AM.
Our first stop was at the outflow of the lower lake for American
Dipper. The stream, with its beaver dam, was perfect American
Dipper habitat. With a bit of searching we eventually found two
and got good long looks at one of them feeding. By 9, we had made
it up to the Clear Lake Campground where we found several Red-naped
Sapsuckers, Mountain Chickadees, three Steller’s Jays and two “dusky”
Fox Sparrows. We then continued up the road and stopped at the
Guanella Pass Campground for Three-toed Woodpeckers. We found a
pair of the ‘Rocky Mountain’ race of Three-toed Woodpeckers and after
everyone got great views of them, continued on up to the pass in search
of our main target for the morning, White-tailed Ptarmigan. We
had run into several groups the day before who had them so we were
armed with lots of current information.
We reached the pass (elevation 11,665 feet) at 10:30 and set off in
search of the ptarmigan. We spread out over the pass and search
many of the willow clumps but initially had no luck. Eventually
after several of us had scurried well out over the hillside and
stumbled through a few patches of ‘thigh-deep snow’, Karl radioed that
he had two in the valley. We stumbled and huffed our way to Karl
and his scope and were rewarded for all this effort with three winter
plumage White-tailed Ptarmigan. We worked our way back to the van
and got several more looks at the birds before setting off down the
road back to Georgetown. At the switchback just above the
Guanella Pass Campground, we had three Gray Jays that we promptly fed
peanuts in hopes of photographic opportunities.
After picking up lunch to go at the Georgetown Grocery we headed off to
Granby and Walden at 1PM.
We arrived at the Windy Gap Wildlife Viewing Area, just outside of
Granby, at 2:15 and found a nice collection of waterfowl including, one
female Bufflehead, several Ring-necked Ducks, numerous Common and
Barrow’s Goldeneye (males and females side-by-side) and one lone
‘Western” Willet. After about 30 minutes, we continued on our way
to Walden and Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge.
We did a once around the Arapaho NWR auto route and didn’t find
anything new. As we headed into Walden, we had a Rough-legged
Hawk, a Ferruginous Hawk and a Golden Eagle hunting on the
grasslands. We then checked into motel in Walden. From 5-7
we scouted the Greater Sage Grouse leks in Coalmont and checked out the
various small bodies of water in the Coalmont area. Where we
found open water (some of the ponds were dry while others were still
ice covered) we found good numbers of waterfowl. We also had two
American Avocets and 3 Common Snipe. We returned to the leks to
await dusk and had a Golden Eagle, Red-tail Hawk and pair of Prairie
Falcons hunting along ridgeline.
At 7PM, as if someone rang a bell, we started seeing male Greater Sage
Grouse moving through the sage towards the lek. We had parked at
a secondary lek where the birds are more likely to be within 10-20
yards of your vehicle. We had about 6-8 birds here but they got
spooked and didn’t start displaying. From where we were parked,
we could see the primary lek and by 7:20 15 birds were on the primary
lek so we drove down. Shortly, more and more birds came to the
lek and we could others in the sage. We eventually had about 40
males displaying on the lek and at least two females came onto the
lek. We left at 8PM after witnessing a wonderful, wonderful
sight. Night in Walden.
Day 7
We returned to the primary Sage Grouse lek a bit before 7AM.
There were approximately 40 birds still displaying although instead of
being in the open area of the lek, most were in the sage along the
edge. This time there were also at least 4 hens. The birds
seemed to be displaying more actively and since they were closer to the
van and there was less wind, we could hear their booming better.
We went back into Walden for breakfast and left town at 9:45. On
the way out of town, we stopped at Lake John. There we had a
Golden Eagle, Canada Geese, Franklin’s Gull, Cinnamon Teal, Lesser
Scaup (lots, they were the predominant duck), Northern Pintail,
Northern Shoveler, Canvasback, Redhead, Eared Grebe, Green-winged Teal,
Gadwall, Bufflehead, American Wigeon, and American Avocet. From
Lake John we headed toward Delaney Butte State Wildlife Area and
Lakes. The lakes were iced over except for the edges and at
10:35, we headed to Steamboat Springs.
We arrived at Steamboat at 11:45 and we headed out Elk Ridge
Road. In one of the wet areas along the road, we found a Snowy
Egret. Chris spotted a Bald Eagle soaring over the plains and we
all piled out of the van to take a look. We stayed along Elk
Ridge Road until 2 when we pushed off to Hayden and Craig. The
only new species we found along the road was two Golden-crowned
Kinglets that some of us heard calling. We were running a bit
behind schedule so we pushed off to Walden and Craig. We arrived
at Hayden at 2:30 and reached the Blue Grouse area. While
searching for the grouse, we came upon a Long-eared Owl and a pair of
Spotted Towhees. First Adrian and then Martin flushed the grouse
before we came upon the grouse on the ground and everyone got to watch
the bird display. This bird was of the interior race with a
yellow comb, red/purple air sac and broad gray terminal tail
band. We continued up the road to check out the Sharp-tailed
Grouse lek and found two Mountain Bluebirds, a Sandhill Crane, several
Pronghorn and a pair of Elk up on the hillside.
We checked into the motel and regrouped at 6PM to head back to the
Sharp-tailed Grouse lek on Road 80 in hopes of an evening show.
We arrived at the lek area at 6:30 and positioned ourselves up the road
to provide us a greater vantage point since we weren’t exactly sure of
the lek’s location. In a ravine, we had a Spotted Skunk to
observe while we waited. At 7PM, Adrian saw a head moving through
the sage at the site where we thought the lek should be. Just as
the bird was coming into view, a Harrier flew by. The grouse was
spooked and took off across the hillside. We were all able to
watch the grouse in flight and a second bird joined it as it flew
across the valley. Although we didn’t get to see the birds dance,
we all did get a reasonable look as they flew. Since we figured
the birds were not going to come back to the lek thanks to the Harrier,
we headed off to a second lek site on Twenty Mile Road (Route
27). We didn’t have any luck here but at least we had scouted the
options for our dawn adventure on Friday. On the hillsides, we
had several small groups of elk. Night in Craig
Day 8
We decided to start the day at the Twenty Mile Road lek site figuring
we knew it was active this year and gave us the option of checking out
some other sites along the road before heading to the Road 80
site. We left the motel at 5:15 and got to the first lek by
6. As it slowly got light, we began to see and hear chickens
dancing on the hill. We set up scopes and soon were watching
about two dozen Sharp-tailed Grouse displaying. The males seemed
to form loosely organized circles of 4-8 birds. They would lower
their heads, raise their tails, hold their wings out, all dance at once
and then stop. They would rest and then dance some more before
all stopping and starting the process all over again. At 6:30 we
left this lek and a few miles down the road, we noticed several birds
in the hillside right by the road. We thought we had about 6-8
Sharp-tails here until a Red-tail Hawk came overhead and about 15 birds
flushed.
From here, we headed back to the lek area on Road 80 and found two
females in the sage by the road. We headed back to the motel and
had two more Sharp-tails perched up on some tall sage bushes.
This allowed us to see the fine feather pattern on their breasts.
We left Craig and headed to Cameo and Coal Canyon. We picked up
lunch in Palisades; some of us at the food market and others of us at
“Slice-O-Life Bakery”. Besides great baked goods, the bakery made
good sandwiches.
We got to Coal Canyon at noon and set out birding. Almost
immediately, we had a Broad-tailed Hummingbird. We spread out
across the canyon and soon came upon several Chipping Sparrows, Rock
Wrens, Mountain Bluebirds, Black-throated Sparrows, Black-throated-Gray
Warblers and Black-chinned Hummingbirds. We also had an Empid
Flycatcher that a few members of the group got glimpses at. They
narrowed it down to being either a Dusky or Cordilleran
Flycatcher. We slowly walked about 1.5 miles up the canyon from
the gate and then started walking back in search of Chukar. We
did have two pair of wild horses but no Chukar. We spread out
along the trail and stayed in the canyon until 6 but remained
Chukar-less, there were comments made about how wild the pair in
Granite started to look, especially to half of the plaid twins.
We then headed to Steve and Debbie Bouricius’s house for Gambel’s Quail
and to pick up additional information on Chukar. Steve suggested
another canyon and we set-off in search of Chukar. We found
Bridgeport Road and head into the canyon. Despite our best
efforts, we could not find a Chukar. The road dead-ended at the
Colorado River but the light was good so we started scanning the cliffs
on the far side. While scanning across the Colorado, we noticed a
beaver swimming up river. This was of some consolation to a few
of us, especially those who think that small furry creatures are
cute. Night in Gunnison.
Day 9
We departed the motel at 5:15 to head towards the Gunnison Sage Grouse
lek in Parlin off of Route 43. We arrived at the lek at 5:35 and
could see birds already displaying in the morning twilight. As it
got lighter, we were able to see their extensive piloplumes on their
heads, smaller size, and slightly different display behavior when
compared to their larger cousins. We counted about 12 birds on
the lek (11 males, 1 female) and they were only 50-75 yards so we were
hoping for great views when all of a sudden at 6:15, they all flew off
they lek. We couldn’t find any predator in the area and we hadn’t
made any loud noise so we couldn’t figure out what spooked them but
they were gone. In the pre-dawn we heard Sage Sparrow, Sage
Thrasher and Western Meadowlark calling.
Since the birds on the Parlin lek were gone, we headed to the Waunita
City Hot Springs lek. We arrived and saw about 15-20 birds still
on the lek including 3 females. The birds were several hundred
yards off but we could open the doors of the van and set a scope up to
view them. Karl was filming them with his digital camera when he
announced, “I’ve filmed a pair copulating!” Erica then gave us running
commentary on another copulation (Oh Baby, Oh Baby!!). We watched
them for a bit longer and talked to the neighboring landowner who is
upset with ill-mannered birders who get out of their vehicles and go
out into the sage to scare up the birds. He claims the number of
birds on this lek has dwindled from well over 100 birds to less than
50; while the number of cars visiting the lek has grown from 25-30/year
three years ago to over 200 this year. He has lived on this land
and observed this lek for at least 7 years. His purpose is to
protect the birds, while allowing birders to enjoy them as much as he
does and not spoil the land.
We headed on back to the motel for breakfast and had the best look at
Brewer ’s Blackbird we had on the entire trip. It seemed silly
that we had not really gotten good looks at this bird yet but that is
the way it goes. On the way out of Gunnison, we headed to a house
near the post office that had Red Crossbills coming to its
feeders. We found the post office, and we found the house with
its feeders unfortunately they were empty. We continued around
the block when a Red-naped Sapsucker caught our attention. At the
same time, Erica noticed an interesting bird bathing in a puddle by the
curb. It turned out to be a female Red Crossbill. In a
matter of moments, we found a male Red Crossbill.
We headed to the San Luis Valley and reached the Russell Lakes State
Wildlife Viewing area around 10:30. We had lots of waterfowl, a
large flock of Yellow-headed Blackbirds, and a Marsh Wren. We
then stopped for a picnic lunch at the headquarters of the Monte Vista
National Wildlife Refuge before going on the auto route. One of
the first birds we saw was a Great Egret in the cattails at the start
of the route. Again, we had lots of waterfowl including Cinnamon,
Blue-winged and Green-winged Teal, Eared Grebes, Redhead, and Northern
Shovelers.
Our last stop of the day was a search for Sage Sparrow and Sage
Thrasher, south of Fort Garland in Sangre de Cristo building
development. Unfortunately, it was very windy yet again.
While the thrasher responded to the tape and sat right up for us, the
sparrow was not so cooperative. We called it a day and headed for
our motel in West Pueblo. Night in West Pueblo.
Day 10
Except for some rather windy days, today was our only day of bad
weather. Fortunately, all we had planned was to return to the
Florence/Brush Hollow area in search of Pinyon Jays and Western
Bluebirds. As we left the motel, it started to rain. We
reached the Florence area and began searching the residential area
where the jays had been reported. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find
the jays so we headed back into Brush Hollow State Wildlife Area.
We drove around Brush Hollow and were equally unsuccessful, although
now the rain had turned to snow. The sandy roads of Brush Hollow,
particularly on one hillside, gave some members of the group reason to
wonder if we were going to make it to the airport on time.
From here, we went on a Western Bluebird chase and since we had climbed
ever so slightly, we now were in serious snow. We did manage to
find a flock of Mountain Bluebirds but no Western Bluebirds. As
we returned to Florence, we did see a cat that somehow had managed to
climb up a telephone pole and must have realized that coming down was
not going to be as easy as going up. Erica wanted us to call for
help but she was out voted.
We also amused ourselves by watching a crack in the windshield grow
(our birding options were fast running out). The day we drove
into Cameo and Coal Canyon, we had lots of pebbles kicked up by the
wind and traffic and ended up getting about 6 good-size chips/cracks in
the windshield. We arrived at the airport, returned the van, and
headed for home. All told, we had driven about 3300 miles on
2001: A Chicken Odyssey.
Adrian Binns
Bert Filemyr
Karl Lukens
Lynn Jackson
Erica Brendel
Chris Walters
Frank Windfelder
Martin Selzer
TRIP LIST
- 2001: a chicken odyssey
BIRDS
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Clark's Grebe
American White Pelican
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Black-crowned Night-Heron
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Snow Goose
Ross's Goose
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Barrow's Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Northern Goshawk
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
Golden Eagle
American Kestrel
Peregrine Falcon
Prairie Falcon
Ring-necked Pheasant
Sage Grouse
Gunnison Sage Grouse
White-tailed Ptarmigan
Blue Grouse
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Greater Prairie-Chicken
Lesser Prairie-Chicken
Wild Turkey
Gambel's Quail
Scaled Quail
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
Snowy Plover
Killdeer
Mountain Plover
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Western Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Long-billed Curlew
Least Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Common Snipe
Franklin's Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
California Gull
Herring Gull
Rock Dove
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Western Screech-Owl
Great Horned Owl
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Burrowing Owl
Long-eared Owl
White-throated Swift
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Lewis's Woodpecker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Three-toed Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Empid sp. (Dusky/Cordilleran)
Black Phoebe
Eastern Phoebe
Say's Phoebe
Vermillion Flycatcher
Loggerhead Shrike
White-eyed Vireo
Gray Jay
Steller's Jay
Blue Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
Clark's Nutcracker
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Chihuahuan Raven
Common Raven
Horned Lark
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Juniper Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Rock Wren
Canyon Wren
Bewick's Wren
Marsh Wren
American Dipper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird
Sage Thrasher
Curve-billed Thrasher
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler 'albilora'
Spotted Towhee
Canyon Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Black-throated Sparrow
Sage Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
McCown's Longspur
Chestnut-collared Longspur
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Common Grackle
Great-tailed Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch
Black Rosy-Finch
Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
Pine Grosbeak
Cassin's Finch
House Finch
Red Crossbill
American Goldfinch
Evening Grosbeak
House Sparrow
176 species
BUTTERFLIES
White sp.
Western White
Cabbage White
Olympia White
Orange Sulphur
Juniper Hairstreak
Gray Hairstreak
Hoary Comma
Mourning Cloak
Milbert's Tortoiseshell
America Lady
Painted Lady
Red Admiral
Monarch
Duskywing sp.
15 species
MAMMALS
Desert Cottontail
Eastern Cottontail
Black-tailed Jackrabbit
White-tailed Jackrabbit
Least Chipmunk
Richardson's Ground Squirrel
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel
Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel
Rock Squirrel
White-tailed Prairie Dog
Black-tailed Prairie Dog
Abert's Squirrel
Eastern Fox Squirrel
American Beaver
Common Muskrat
Red Fox
Striped Skunk
Wild Horses
Elk
Mule Deer
White-tailed Deer
Pronghorn
Bighorn Sheep
23 speices
AMPHIBIANS
Striped Chorus Frog
1 species
Albert Filemyr
<afilemyr@HOME.COM>