I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been up to lately. For one, I took a weekend trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. The mountains were beautiful, and even though there was rain and thunder every day we were there (I’m not kidding. Every. Single. Day.), we got lots of hiking and some birding in!
The first day, we birded Wild Basin Trail on the southern side of the park, gaining lifers Mountain Chickadee, Green-tailed Towhee, and Red-naped Sapsucker. The second day, we hiked up Deer Mountain, which didn’t produce any lifers (though we did, oddly enough, find three Wild Turkeys), and on the third day, we hit Matthews-Reeser Bird Sanctuary, which is in Estes Park and not far from our motel, and found a ton of Turkey Vultures, a few late warblers, and lifer Violet-green Swallow. Add that to the Western Kingbird, Broad-tailed Hummingbird, Spotted Towhee, and Pygmy Nuthatch that I got shortly after we arrived, and you get a very exciting trip (even though I didn’t find any gorgeous Mountain Bluebirds, which I had been desperately hoping for)! Elk were all over- crossing roads right, left, and sideways- and you could see the mountains from just about everywhere in Estes Park.
My second piece of news is that I made a video in partnership with the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, all about American Kestrels! I was so excited to do this, because I’ve always had a soft spot for kestrels, and to say the least, I was stoked to meet Sienna, their kestrel ambassador. I’ve filmed a second one as well, which should come out in a few weeks. The video is a recorded Zoom call with me and Henry Cole, an author and illustrator- I’ve linked it at the bottom of this post.
I also attended several bird walks this June, through my local Audubon chapter and the Kestrels birding club. It’s a great way to meet new people and learn new things!
There- that’s everything I’ve done so far this summer. I need to get out more, don’t I?
You can watch my video with Henry Cole and the Raptor Center here: https://www.facebook.com/TheRaptorCenter/videos/vb.42566849655/509987780128762/?type=3&theater