Grouse Gatherings in Colorado
One of my best Colorado runs yet, an early spring favored the return of many spring migrants making for a larger than normal species total than what we typically get. Coming in at 153 species, this is the largest bird total we’ve had in 18 years of running this tour! However I was actually somewhat apprehensive of the early spring and nice weather as Rosy Finches can be pretty hard to get after spring breaks. However, “luck” was with us, and the day we tried for the Rosies, a gnarly snowstorm had cropped up, and that brought the finches back into the feeders where we enjoyed great views of over a hundred Brown-capped Rosies, and a rather handsome Black Rosy Finch!
Of course, the stars of this show are the various lekking grouse species. Our first encounter was the highly endangered Gunnison Sage-Grouse. While distant from our blind, these birds gave us a delightful show in some beautiful morning light. We then traveled to Kansas where we had front row seats to the utterly charming Lesser Prairie Chickens and their cooperative displays. From there, we popped up into Nebraska where the Greater Prairie Chickens took center stage. Rolling back into the Colorado mountains, we found ourselves enjoying the surreal display of Greater Sage Grouse, looking like some kind of turkey-angel hybrid in the glowing morning light. And for our final act, we traveled to the rolling grass plains of northwest Colorado where we marveled at the dynamic display of Sharp-tailed Grouse, who are perhaps the most active dancers with wings akimbo, they twirl and stomp and hoot to impress a lovely lady grouse into creating the next generation of grouselings.
But this tour is so much more than just the grouse (though that would be more than enough!). Other avian highlights included a near constant stream of Mountain Bluebirds and Black-billed Magpies flying up from the roadside; rare shorebirds like Mountain Plover and Long-billed Curlew; Delightful treats of both Burrowing Owls and a pair of Northern Pygmy Owls at the nest. scoping marshes and reservoirs for goodies like Eurasian Wigeon, White-fronted Geese, Franklin’s Gulls and displaying Western and Clark’s Grebes; traversing the prairies where we enjoyed birds like Thick-billed and Chestnut-collared Longspurs; and exploring the mountain conifer forests and rushing river canyons for birds like American Dipper, Golden Eagle, Prairie Falcon, Clark’s Nutcracker, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Pine and Evening Grosbeaks. Of course, it's not just the birds on this tour- the charismatic megafauna is worth the trip itself! Every day we had great looks at animals like Mule Deer, Elk, Pronghorn, Bison, Coyote and Bighorn Sheep. And all set along some of the most scenic backdrops the North American continent has to offer!
