Front Range
Birding Blog

We started our walk at Boulder Reservoir with excellent sunny weather and low wind, allowing us to see the birds on the lake quite easily without many waves. Boulder Reservoir is the largest reservoir in the county in terms of both size and volume creating an excellent environment for birds but also for recreational boating,…

Okay, here’s the good news! Breeding season has started! Wahoo!  The probable evidence for this was seen on Saturday as we viewed a cozy pair of Great Horned Owls exhibiting some fondness for one another’s company.  Great Horned Owls can maintain their pair-bond year-round, but these two were perched so close to one another that it felt…

Well, I think we can safely say that the eclipse plumage time of the year (when males briefly have a female-type cryptic plumage) is over and that everybody is pretty much set with their fancied-up breeding plumage for next spring.  Also, our winter ducks are starting to really roll in (fly in) now. So, who did…

It was a glorious morning at the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies’ banding station at Barr Lake this past Saturday!  The Conservancy has been banding fall migratory birds here for over thirty years, and each year adds additional knowledge to what we know about these birds that pass through Colorado. We hustled out there, so…

We had an incredibly entertaining start to our walk on Saturday.  This year mama Wood Duck had about eight fledglings back in July.  Last month we were thrilled to see that six of them were still around, and we were able to tell that they were all males.  We could see the characteristic bright white…

September is a great month to look for migrants and this past Saturday at Lagerman Agricultural Preserve didn’t disappoint on that count. We also welcomed our newest employee, Stephen Chang, to the FRBC team on this bird walk. Welcome, Stephen! Unlike spring migration where birds are in a rush to find nesting territories, fall migration…

Join us on Saturday, September 14th for FRBC-Boulder’s 2nd Saturday bird walk at Lagerman Agricultural Preserve. Lagerman Agricultural Preserve in Longmont encompasses over 2,000 acres of agricultural lands as part of Boulder County’s Open Space. The western end of the reservoir itself is a shorebird paradise and is closed for nesting between April 1st and…

Harriman Lake always seems to have something to offer!  Saturday the focus was on migrant birds.  To talk about our first bird we need to start by learning a bit about four species of little sparrows that belong to the genus Spizella.  We have about thirty species of sparrows (AKA Little Brown Jobs) that can…

Saturday was the day of the Black-capped Chickadees.  As we left the welcome center we immediately were surrounded by a little group consistently calling to one another.  Now that breeding season is pretty much over with just a few ragtag juvenile birds still harassing their parents for a hand-out (or beak-out), the time for singing…

We started our walk at Betasso Preserve under cloudy skies, which fortunately kept things a little cooler for our 3 mile trek along the Canyon Loop than they otherwise could’ve been this time of year. Betasso Preserve is ideal for hiking and birding on Wednesdays and Saturdays when the trail is closed to mountain bikers.…