Front Range Rarities - Birds on the Wing

On January 23, 24 and 26 we chased multiple Front Range rarities. We covered five counties: Adams, Jefferson, Douglas, Arapahoe and Boulder. We found most of what we were looking for and even a few surprises.

Chatfield State Park January 23

In the late afternoon we headed to Chatfield State Park in search of a Yellow-billed Loon. After carefully scoping the reservoir for 20 minutes we spotted two loons swimming very close to each other. One of them was the Yellow-billed, the other was a Common Loon.

Common Loon swimming near the Yellow-billed. He has a much darker back and head.

Yellow-billed Loon and Common Loon — Good comparison of Yellow-billed (on left) and Common (on right) Loons. You can see the much lighter back on the Yellow-billed.

Cherry Creek State Park January 24

We went to Cherry Creek State Park hoping to find some of the common local birds but were pleasantly surprised with an unexpected rarity. We found a Mexican Duck at the Marina. Mexican Ducks are very similar to Mallards, but the male does not have a green head like a Mallard and it is darker overall.

Male Mexican Duck on the left and female Mallard on the right. We know he is a male because of his yellow bill.

Mexican Duck and Mallard — Mexican Duck in the center surrounded by male and female Mallards.

An interesting male Mallard still molting into breeding plumage.

This Bald Eagle flew over and flushed all the Mallards and the Mexican Duck we were looking at…

While we watched the Mexican Duck we saw this gull trying to steal dinner from a Hooded Merganser.

Two coyotes feeding on some kind of carcass on the ice on the other side of the lake. Magpies standing by for leftovers.

Full Birding Day January 26

Today we looked for many rarities along the Front Range. Most of the birds we chased were uncommon or rare birds that were visiting bird feeders in people’s yards. To respect the homeowners who have shared these bird sightings, I will not post exact locations of the feeders and homes.

Morrison

We headed to private feeders in Morrison arriving just before sunrise. Our target was a Golden-crowned Sparrow that had been visiting this feeder. This was our third attempt to see this West Coast bird. After waiting for almost an hour the bird made an appearance and gave us great views!

Townsend's Solitaire — While we were waiting this Townsend’s Solitaire was feasting on berries.

Littleton

Our next stop was another neighborhood where a Carolina Wren had been seen. The wren had been visiting two different feeders only a few blocks away from each other. Although we birded the neighborhood for two hours we only heard the bird call twice. He never made an appearance so we had to settle for just hearing him.

A Red-tailed Hawk in a tree near the feeders.

Lyons

Our third stop of the day was also our third feeder watch of the day. After only five minutes of watching the feeders our target bird, Harris’s Sparrow, appeared on his favorite feeder, an upside down trash can lid. The higher elevation area also produced some other cool birds.

Steller's Jay — A Steller’s Jay on the Sparrow’s favorite spot.

Harris's Sparrow — The Harris’s Sparrow arrived on the feeder just after the jay left.

After leaving the feeder we saw this Golden Eagle cruising over the ridgeline.

ridgeline — What a view! This is the ridge where we saw the Golden Eagle.

As we left Lyons we saw an American Dipper in St. Vrain Creek.

South Platte River at 78th Ave

As the sun began to set on an awesome day of birding we headed back towards Denver to a section of the South Platte River where a pair of Barrow’s Goldeneye had been reported. Although the sun set on our chances of seeing the Goldeneye we did get many other waterfowl.

Black-crowned Night-heron along the river.

I love chasing Front Range rarities! January is normally not a great time to be doing this but we found some good and rare birds.

Camera: Nikon COOLPIX P1000, SONY Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V

Optics: Celestron