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.
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.
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