A beautiful Bear Lake morning.
Morning reflections
A very calm morning at Bear Lake
The ground squirrel was also enjoying the view!
AFTERNOON: A rest back at the cottage, enjoying the Broad-Tailed Hummingbirds buzzing everywhere! Visit to Endovally Area of the park, a low valley, site of the Lawn Lake Dam Burst of 1982 (more info). This is also a good birding area. An afternoon thunderstorm cut this short. Late afternoon saw us have some nice Thai delivered from an Estes Park takeout restaurant.
EVENING: "Owling", looking for Pygmy Owls on Cow Creek Trail, on the eastern edge of the park. We thought we had and saw one in the dusk, but another bird (Townsend's Solitaire) can sound similar, so we can't say for sure! We'll have to try again!
BIRDING: The morning at the lodge brought some immediate new birds to the trip list: BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD, BLACK-BILLED MAGPIE, COMMON RAVEN, CASSIN'S FINCH, VIOLET-GREEN SWALLOW, PINE SISKIN, STELLER'S JAY, BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK, and MOUNTAIN CHICKADEE, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE, HOUSE WREN and RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER. On the way to Bear Lake we drove through the flats in the middle of the park such as Hollowell, and Upper Beaver Meadows. We added the beautiful MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD, LINCOLN'S SPARROW, VESPER SPARROW, SONG SPARROW, and CLARK'S NUTCRACKER. There were many many fewer Clark's Nutcracker's around from what I recall when I came here in the 1980's!
At Bear Lake, we added GRAY JAY, HERMIT THRUSH (heard), YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, MACGILLIVRAYS WARBLER, DARK EYED JUNCO, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, and MALLARD DUCK, and CORDILLERAN FLYCATCHER (empidonax assumed by habitat??)
At Endovalley, we added a surprise DUSKY GROUSE (former BLUE GROUSE) .. very good looks! Also heard WILSON'S WARBLER, AMERICAN DIPPER, WARBLING VIREO, HAIRY WOODPECKER (and more RED-NAPED SAPSUCKERS, but NO Three Toeds!). Also a great NORTHERN FLICKER (RED-SHAFTED) (We ended up seeing many of these birds on the trip), RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. A walk through the Aspens just before the Alluvian fan parking lot was very birdy, including another Grouse family, House Wren, VG Swallows, and Red Naped Sapsucker.
"Pink-Sided" Dark Eyed Junco: Bear Lake
Gray Jay at Bear Lake
Female Broad Tailed Hummbingbird at MacGregor Lodge Feeder (Estes Park, CO)
Blue (Dusky) Grouse at Alluvial Fan, Rocky Mountain National Park
Young Blue (Dusky) Grouse chick being watched by mom above
Red-Naped Sapsucker: Endovalley, Rocky Mountain National Park
Melissa took this shot of three baby Black-Billed Magpies near Endovalley, Rocky Mountain National Park (Melissa's photo)
Melissa got this great shot of a bright male Mountain Bluebird on Dry Gulch Road
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