Had a most awesome day of birding today! My dad(Nathan) and I went out chasing two rare birds that had recently been seen in the state.  Our targets were Snowy Owl near Barr Lake and Long-tailed Duck(Oldsquaw) at Duck Lake in Denver's City Park.
We started out chasing the Snowy Owl.  After about an hour of driving through the fields, we failed to see it and decided to head down to City Park.  While we were looking for the owl, we did see Ferrugious Hawk, Northern Harrier and Bald Eagle.
At City Park we found the Long-tailed Duck pretty easily.  This is a VERY rare bird for Colorado.  We were able to watch it for our entire time birding the lake.  It was mingling with Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Ring-necked Duck and a female Barrow's Goldeneye.  The Long-tailed Duck was my 297th Life Bird and the Barrow's Goldeneye was my 298th.  I was very excited to see my first Bufflehead of the year, as the Bufflehead is my second all time favorite bird.  We also saw Cackling Goose, Gadwall, Redhead, Northern Shoveler, Cooper's Hawk, American Wigeon and Hooded Merganser at Duck Lake.  We had a blast watching the Mergansers. We saw a female and a male. At one point, the female caught a crayfish, and the male harassed her for the better part of 5 minutes trying to steal the prize away from her.  After much chasing around the lake, the female finally succeeded in devouring the crayfish, after which, the male contented himself to sit on a log.  A few short seconds later, an American Coot chased the merganser off the log.  All in all, it was a most outstanding day of birding, one that I will remember for a long time.
 
Bird trip this Friday with my dad! I can't wait! Hopefully I will be able to add to my month list, and maybe my life list!  Anyone else planning any fun birding excursions this weekend?
 
-For all of you who have been to my YouTube channel and have been wondering why I do not have a COBirdingVid or much other material up, here is the answer...my computer  won't let me install my editing program. Alas, I have tried installing it from the disk, downloading it from online, and it won't work.  So it may be a little while yet till I have a COBirdingVid up.  I will continue to post bird videography videos though, a White-breasted Nuthatch will be the next video I upload.

-I made my first birding trip of the year on Friday, went to my local haunt: Standley Lake.  Was a very fun little trip.  Saw a Song Sparrow minutes into my walk.  I was really hoping to get American Tree Sparrow(love those little guys!) and some waterfowl on this trip, so those were my targets.  Shortly after seeing the Song Sparrow, a lone American Tree Sparrow landed in a bush not 10 feet from me.  After some wonderful, close-up views of one of my favorite little birds, another soon joined it's company.  A Common Goldeneye(one of my favorite waterfowl species) soon grabbed my attention and I enjoyed watching him dive on reappear for a few minutes.  A scan of the lake revealed American Coot and Ring-billed Gulls.  I did another scan farther out and discovered a Common Merganser hanging out on the lake, a very nice surprise.  I started walking along the shore, admiring the ice formations that had been pushed up against the shore.  I then meandered over to the trail up the gazebo.  No sooner had I set foot on the trail then I saw a hawk dive and disappear behind the ridge at the top of the trail.  The prairie dogs scattered and I stood, ready to spot it should it reappear.  Seconds later the hawk roared over the top of the ridge, took a sharp turn right and sailed a few feet over the ground to a resting spot on the top of the ridge, perfectly backdropped by a clear, blue sky.  It was a Ferruginous Hawk.  That will always be one of my most memorable birding experiences.  I walked up the trail to the gazebo and then went back to my car.  I picked up Mourning Dove and House Sparrow along the way, and spotted a pair of coyotes farther out in the park.
 
Looking forward to a new year of birding! This is a leap year so know what that means??? One extra day to bird!! Can't wait to see what birds this year brings.  Going to keep a running list of the birds I see each month(you can follow on the sub window Monthly Birding Blog).  Goal: 40 species each month.