Endearingly called "chickens", this actually refers to Sage Grouse (Greater & Gunnison), Prairie Chickens (Greater and Lesser), Dusky Grouse, White-tailed Ptarmigan, and Chukar. Tour companies usually spend a week or more, traversing the entire state of Colorado, and often venturing into neighboring states, to get great looks at these birds, of which the Sage Grouse and Prairie Chickens have quite an elaborate mating ritual, at a somehow-determined-by-the-birds space on the ground, called a lek.
Note I said people often spend "a week or more". I had 4.5 days - the only window of time remaining in April between clients I had for bird guiding in the Rio Grande Valley. ABA Big Year birder Charlie and I joined forces for this trip. Special thanks to friend and fellow bird guide Raymond for piecing together an itinerary to hopefully accomplish all.
Denver Arrival: Sunday April 25, 1:00 pm
After a quick side detour to get Charlie American Dipper for the year (I had seen mine in February in Arizona - the very first day I had decided to do a big year), my first target stop was for White-tailed Ptarmigan at Loveland Pass. It was very cold and insanely windy - the hillsides were covered in snow with only a few small rocky areas exposed. Finding a white bird on a white landscape was a little bit like Where's Waldo, but we managed it! It was a tag team effort: We had split up to search different hillsides, and Charlie had heard one. After a bit of scanning, I found it, much closer than we had anticipated! We spent about a half hour enjoying the bird and watching it preen while nestled into the snow. I had searched for this bird in Alaska nearly a decade ago with no success.
It was then on to Greater Sage Grouse in an area near Walden. Bouncing down the gravel road at the location we were given, sure enough, there was one! And then two! Finally we ended up finding five birds; four females and one male. It was the final target for the day. Day .5: 100% success. As it turns out, my friend Alex happened to also be staying in Walden that night, with a tour group he was leading. The group was asleep, and he headed out to try for Boreal Owl with us at Cameron Pass. We spent about an hour at various locations along the pass for the bird, but the wind was about 20 mph and it was difficult to hear anything at all. A winnowing snipe above the Moose Visitor Center really threw us for a loop. Such different species, but if you look at Sibley's description of Boreal Owl call, he compares it to a Wilson's Snipe. So strange!
Monday
The following morning, we headed three hours to look for Chukar at Coal Canyon. After a bit of scanning in similar fashion to ptarmigan scanning, we found one pretty cooperative and seemingly unafraid. Chukar is an introduced species, native to the Middle East. I mostly despise exotic species, but when doing a big year, it is what it is, and Chukar was #545.
From there it was on to Lewis's Woodpecker, immediately found in a giant tree at the coordinates we were given. No photos, as it flew off to who-knows-where on short notice.
Dusky Grouse was on our list for the following morning - with the entire day dedicated to its finding at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, as it can be a very finicky species. After walking for miles and miles, Charlie spotted a distant one across the other side of the canyon. It was visible for about 30 seconds and then disappeared forever. What a horrible look at a life bird! (Second, only, to the Streak-backed Oriole I only heard and did not see, in California back in February.)
Tuesday
Gunnison Sage Grouse, one hour before sunrise! I was forewarned that these birds would be distant...but that still didn't prepare me for how distant they were! It made Monday's Dusky Grouse views seem exquisite.
American Three-toed Woodpecker was on Monarch Pass - finally, success! We had tried one spot at the beginning of the trip with no luck, had a lead from a park ranger at the Black Canyon when we were there which was a dead end attempt, and finally great looks at one teed up in a bare tree not far from the highway pull-off.
Later that evening, we went back to that same area to try for Boreal Owl. This was an exceptionally special bird for me, as it was my 700th life ABA bird, a milestone sought after by many birders. It's crazy to think that my goal for 2021 is to see more species of birds in the lower 48 than I've seen in my entire 22 years of birding in all 50 states!
Wednesday
It wound up being a day of leisure hiking, as there were no more year birds to be found nearby! Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs was just as gorgeous as I'd always seen in photos. It was nice to get out hiking without the stress of needing to keenly watch for birds. The afternoon was spent driving to Kansas, where lekking prairie chickens awaited.
Thursday morning was a 4:45 alarm, similar to most of the week. Lesser Prairie Chicken would be the only bird I'd get good looks at lekking on this trip - some of the others we'd planned to watch lekking in the morning but in the interest of time, saw them instead in the evening, wandering near the lek areas and feeding. Our guide, Jim, was knowledgeable and entertaining, and he took us to an old horse trailer left out in the middle of the field that served as a blind. You could hear the birds even before there was any amount of daylight. One by one, they came walk and flying in. Suddenly, there was a tone difference. Jim explained that at this lek, there is one male Greater Prairie Chicken that comes in daily and shows off, even though there are no other Greaters present. He said that Greaters and Lessers hybridize. After about two hours of watching the birds, our time got cut short - Charlie noticed that the hourly ABA Rare Bird Report included a Fork-tailed Flycatcher 45 minutes from the Wichita Airport! We let Jim know the situation and he quietly escorted us away from the lek.
Greater Prairie Chicken
Lesser Prairie Chickens
The drive to the flycatcher area included piecing puzzle pieces together - the eBird report looked okay, but there were no photos. Finally, a photo surfaced, and the one rather fuzzy photo showed a bird with a dark cap. Fork-tailed, no doubt! For some reason, people on the Kansas Birding page were still negotiating what it was, with some saying it could be a Scissor-tailed. Upon arrival, we scoured the area the bird had been seen, and started driving the nearby roads. About 45 minutes into the adventure, driving slowly down the road, I was pulled over by a county sheriff. Great. The last thing I need on a big year, with limited finances, between jobs and working on creating my own company - is a traffic ticket. I certainly wasn't speeding! I was driving slow, but carefully. Bracing myself for a potential ticket, the officer's first question was, "Are you looking for the bird?" Yes! Yes we are! As it turns out, the officer is a beginning birder and the original finder of the bird! Once my anxiety about a traffic ticket wore off, we had a great conversation about birding and I congratulated him on his incredible find! Usually, not finding a bird doesn't result in a good story, but not the case here!
The odometer tacked on a whopping 1,590 miles in 4.5 days. I picked up nine new year birds, and aside from Lewis's Woodpecker, all of them were lifers!
Year List: 551
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