Eat more cookies

Finally, on Saturday the 11th, we left early from Laramie (after a quick stop at the bakery) and drove out to Hutton Lake NWR for some pre-meeting birding. On the way, we passed rangeland in which pronghorns outnumbered cattle about 10:1. There were abundant, barking prairie dogs (white-tailed), and numerous jackrabbits (also white-tailed).

We found Calliope (lifer!) and Rufous hummingbirds lined up along the barbed wire fences on the way in, taking advantage of flowers in the roadside ditch. Once in the refuge proper, we encountered high plains rangeland with a complex of large ponds and abundant rushes. I picked up McCown’s Longspur (lifer #2!) and enjoyed great looks at Prairie Falcon, which I had only encountered once before, many years ago. One of these falcons, however, zipped past just overhead, and the wind-over-feather sound was clearly audible. Great fun!

We were most enamored, however, by Virginia and Sora rails darting back and forth across an opening in the rushes. I called them out of hiding pretty easily, but my photos are still lousy.

Soon we noticed that lots of folks from the meeting had come by to bird this spot. We packed up and headed back to town for the third and final day of AOU talks.

At the end of the day, I opted out of the banquet and drove down the road to Fort Collins to give myself a better chance to make my early morning flight. Route 287 winds through some spectacular scenery there. Along the way, I enjoyed the eclectic sounds of KUNC and was introduced to the soul singer Ryan Shaw. He put the exclamation point on an AOU meeting I’ll not soon forget.

Oops! Forgot the Hutton Lake trip list:

canada goose
gadwall
mallard
blue-winged OR cinnamon teal
eared grebe
american white pelican
great blue heron
black-crowned night-heron
snowy egret
white-faced ibis
turkey vulture
northern harrier
swainson’s hawk
red-tailed hawk
prairie falcon
virginia rail
sora
american coot
killdeer
lesser yellowlegs
american avocet
willet
upland sandpiper
forster’s tern
mourning dove
calliope hummingbird
rufous hummingbird
say’s phoebe
loggerhead shrike
common raven
horned lark
tree swallow
violet-green swallow
bank swallow
cliff swallow
marsh wren
american robin
sage thrasher
yellow warbler
common yellowthroat
brewer’s sparrow
vesper sparrow
savannah sparrow
mccown’s longspur
red-winged blackbird
yellow-headed blackbird
american goldfinch