Birds & Brews, Colorado! Delta County.

Birds & Brews Colorado! An informal gathering of birders of all abilities - if you're interested in birds, you're invited!While in Cedaredge this past week, I scoped out a location for the next Colorado Birds & Brews.

I'll be back in Cedaredge next week and thought it would be a great time for Western Slope Birders to have a get together. We'll be meeting at

The Stockyards on 1205 Main St. Delta, CO.
Thursday, August 6th, 6:00 p.m.

Bring a friend and a tidbit or story to share on Western Colorado birding. Hosted by myself and my sis Lauren Burke. RSVP to me by email, it helps the staff to know what to expect. But if you're not sure, just come on anyway!

It's a time to meet other birders, maybe find a carpool or birding buddy, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, a great new book, project ideas, digiscoping tips, promote your blog--the sky is the limit!

(I stole this idea from Sharon Stiteler at birdchick.com who has a successful and fun "Birds & Beers" in Minnesota and various other places she travels, with her approval.) My hope is to host these throughout the state.

Slogging For Costa Rican Birds - This Ain't Kansas, Dorothy. Birder of the Year Trip #5

The continuing saga of our WildBird Birder Of The Year Costa Rica Trip. (My eternal and sincere gratitude and thanks to Swarovski Optik and WildBird!)

"Bring at least one pair of shoes that you can get TOTALLY wet and muddy. The walk at Carrara is on a flat road that is about 1/3 water and 1/3 mud." Clay Taylor - He wasn't kidding!

Clay, ready as always.
I'm not quite sure what this hut was. Possibly a Ranger Station?
We started off early to visit our last big birding location Carrara National Park. Being duly warned I wore my older New Balance running shoes I use to mow the lawn in and Al was similarly prepared. One of our first birds from the gate was a Royal Flycatcher. He did raise his gorgeous crest for us, but I was not able to grab a photo. Yes, I know Obvious Vignetting in this photo.

Al got pretty darn good at finding birds. He'd say, "there's something that looks like a woodpeckery thing!" And we'd all scramble to find it. Here is Clay and he trying to see something at a weird angle. That is how most of the birding is done in the jungle - at weird angles.

A mysterious jungle creature was here before us.

This Gray Hawk gave us great looks and a nice photo op.

Takin' a short break.

Ahh, yes, here is where the fun began. I didn't even THINK of what could possibly be in this water.

My feet certainly were. Somewhere.

I wish I could have seen Amy's face here. The water was getting higher, at it's deepest it was over halfway to my knees.

Nice view of a Short-billed Pigeon

Very cool Variegated Squirrel stopped long enough for me to snap a shot.

Here is a beautiful bird. Check out that mug! Boat-billed Herons.

This guy was a trip, I think he is a mature Black Iquana. He approached us unconcerned and we nabbed several nice shots as he posed. Then he proceeded to..

the top of a nearby dirt hill and really gave us his best side. This dude was obviously posing. We cracked up!

Clay's $10 Walmart Tennies in reverse rolls. They were falling apart so he put one sock over his shoe. Did the job. Poor shoes never left Costa Rica.

This little gem stopped us in our tracks. Even our guide Alex exclaimed he did not expect to see this bird. He was very cooperative and allowed us plenty of time for photos. So tiny and so beautiful. American Pygmy Kingfisher. I love you.

I don't know if we were coming or going in this shot. We walked a long way in the water. I think we were getting delirious.

So, what's Kansas got to do with it? Well shortly after we got out of the water-road we ran into a group from Kansas with a local guide. We could tell they were NOT prepared to water-slog as we did. In fact after a brief chat we arrived at our car and before we even had all our gear loaded they were back! They missed a LOT of birds by not venturing into the deep. It was SO worth it. We saw so many more birds than I got photos. One of my favorites of the day was the Black-faced Antshrike. A smallish, rail-like bird, walking stately through the jungle. Amazing.

Here is a very sweet bird we saw at a nest - Barred Antshrike.

Alex our guide. We would not have seen many birds without him!

Exploring Guanella Pass In Greek

"Give me a word, any word and I will show you that the root of this word will be Greek"

On our way home from Cedaredge we took the roundabout way through Montrose so Maggie could have a sandwich from The Bagel Shop and coffee from The Coffee Trader. As we were motoring along I remembered a sign for Guanella Pass off of Hwy 285. (Now, my only previous experience with this pass was a couple of years ago in the winter with Sue Riffe in her Honda CRV in DEEP SNOW hoping we don't get stuck looking for Ptarmigans. We actually found other crazy birders in the fierce winds at the top, but no Ptarmigans.)

So after decsending Kenosha Pass we found the road and went exploring. We stopped at a picnic area along the creek and played in the water and the woods. Then continued the stunningly gorgeous drive to the top, winding up on I-70 and back to the business of driving home. A sightseeing detour well worth the time.
Reina loved the rare treat of being able to stick her head out of the window.
Arriving at the pass we parked, got the dogs and camera out and went walking.
The wildflowers were amazing.

We were tempted, but had neither the gear nor the time to walk to the top.

These must be the happiest flowers ever.
Mountain Tundra - we couldn't find a Ptarmigan anywhere. But the signs kept telling us to stay on the trail so we weren't free to wander. How can this be in such a land? Wandering practically begs you.

Birds & Brews Colorado, Delta!

Birds & Brews Colorado! An informal gathering of birders of all abilities - if you're interested in birds, you're invited!While in Cedaredge this past week, I scoped out a location for the next Colorado Birds & Brews.

I'll be back in Cedaredge early August and thought it would be a great time for Western Slope Birders to have a get together. We'll be meeting at

The Stockyards on 1205 Main St. Delta, CO.

Thursday, August 6th, 6:00 p.m.

Bring a friend and a tidbit or story to share on Western Colorado birding. Hosted by myself and my sis Lauren Burke. RSVP to me by email, it helps the staff to know what to expect. But if you're not sure, just come on anyway!

It's a time to meet other birders, maybe find a carpool or birding buddy, ask about where to find target birds, share cool research projects you might be working on, ask a bird feeding question, share life lists, a great new book, project ideas, digiscoping tips, promote your blog--the sky is the limit!

(I stole this idea from Sharon Stiteler at birdchick.com who has a successful and fun "Birds & Beers" in Minnesota and various other places she travels, with her approval.) My hope is to host these throughout the state.

Exploring The 10,000 Foot Table, Driving with 12 year olds.

Wednesday, Maggie and I went over to Cedaredge to help my folks de-clutter some and get ready for a yard sale. We took advantage of the location and spent an afternoon on Grand Mesa, the largest mesa in the world with over 500 square miles and 300 lakes. We visited a tiny portion on the south side.

This was a little side creek we played in, my step-sis Kim and kids Ryan and Abbey were with us. They climbed and explored and found fish in big holes. Then they dared and taunted each other until all dove and swam in the freezing mountain lake.

Our mini-dachshunds enjoyed running and sniffin' through the grass.I gave each kid their first driving lesson. Maggie is intently focused on staying between the ditches on the backwoods mountain roads. The rest of us in the car focused on breathing!Winnie focused on being brave.

WingScapes Kestrel Cam!

Here are a few short videos of the Kestrel fledglings and their parents. So cool!

Stove Prairie Solitude

I had the privilege the other day to visit a good friend in the mountains. My daughter Maggie and I headed up in the morning for a beautiful one hour drive to Carol's house. When we arrived we found Carol already outside enjoying the beautiful day

We piled out of our car with binocs and camera in hand to join her. After a cool glass of water we began walking around enjoying her wild yard and surrounding forest. This is the view from Carol's back door. Watch out for the bear. Band-tailed Pigeons loudly flapped as they flew through the woods.

The wildflowers were glorious, below is one of the zillions of Blue Columbines.

After a brief tour of the yard we retired to the deck for some delicious scones and a show of hummingbirds. The broad-tails were zipping around dangerously and a few even brushed my eyelashes!

Properly refreshed we continued exploring around the house and woods. Carol and her husband have put up many bird boxes, below is one of them.The woods are blanketed in flowers and greenery. I hadn't seen it this green in many years. This Aspen forest contained many delights one which we discovered had taken advantage of a Flicker nest cavity.This lovely Flammulated Owl** peaked out at us and gave me a life bird view at her. Look at how her feathering so completely matches the surrounding bark!She didn't stay out long and we didn't get too close. What a treat to view such a lovely little creature. We continued our walk and exploration, ending with a delightful lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches before we said our thank yous and good-byes to Carol and headed back down the mountain. What an enjoyable day with friends and nature.

**This owl was on private property and it's not open for public viewing.