This morning I joined a bird walk at Chatfield State Park led by Joey Kellner.  At the start of the walk there were numerous Lesser Goldfinches and a couple of American Goldfinches in a field of sunflowers.  Here’s a young Lesser Goldfinch at the edge of some woods:

Lesser Goldfinch

We saw a good variety of birds, including the following:  Common Mergansers, Wood Ducks, Mallards, White Pelicans, Belted Kingfishers, Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons, Herring Gulls, a White-faced Ibis, a Forster’s Tern, a Clark’s Grebe, Turkey Vultures, a Cooper’s Hawk, a Downy Woodpecker, a Hairy Woodpecker, a Yellow-breasted Chat, Gray Catbirds, Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, Black-chinned Hummingbirds, and Black-capped Chickadees.

We finished off by the walk by spotting a few Gray Flycatchers:

Gray Flycatcher

Gray Flycatcher

This morning at Mesa Verde National Park we saw several wild turkeys.

Wild turkeys

We took a tour of Mug House:

Mug House

One of the first birds we saw at Mesa Verde, a Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay was also one of the last:

Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay

From the balcony of our room at the Far View Lodge at Mesa Verde National Park:

Feral horses

We took a tour of Square Tower:

Square Tower

On the tour, we were serenaded by very loud rock squirrels.  We also saw Common Ravens, Pinyon Jays, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays, and this hummingbird:

Broad-tailed Hummingbird on scarlet gilia

After the Square Tower tour, we looked at other dwellings, including preserved pit houses, where I noticed this flycatcher above in a skylight of the building protecting the dwellings:

Gray Flycatcher

In the afternoon we hiked the Petroglyph Point Trail, so named because of this:

Petroglyph

Turkey Vultures soared above.  Here are two perched juveniles:

Turkey Vultures

Today we drove to Mesa Verde National Park.   We hiked the Knife Edge Trail, where we saw Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays, Common Ravens, Bushtits, a Western Wood-Pewee, and a Black-chinned Hummingbird.

Bushtit

Black-chinned Hummingbird

And a lizard:

Western version of fence lizard Plateau Fence Lizard (Sceloporus tristichus)–thanks to Joey Kellner for the precise identification

Today I took a birding trip to northeast Colorado led by David Suddjian, with Denver Field Ornithologists.  At Prewitt Reservoir there were hundreds of shorebirds.  Here’s one:

Pectoral Sandpiper

This morning my better half and I rode a side-by-side to the top of Red Cone Pass (elevation:  12,801 feet) in Park County.  Views from the top:

“The Flower Thief”*:

*20-second video about a hummingbird

On an early lunch walk in the Bear Creek Greenbelt I found a female Mallard with four ducklings in Hodgson Ditch.  Here are the ducklings:

Mallard ducklings

In the trees west of the “magic tree,” I saw a couple of juvenile Lazuli Buntings.  Here’s one:

Lazuli Bunting

The juvenile Cooper’s Hawks are not hanging around their old haunts (in the woods where the nest tree is or at the “magic tree”) these days.  But I had a feeling I’d find them in the dense woods just west of the City of Lakewood maintenance buildings.

Two of them were there.  Here’s one protesting the injustice of its sibling having a meal while it had none.

Cooper’s Hawk

Here’s the sibling with a mouse:

Cooper’s Hawk

This morning on our early morning walk with the dog in the Bear Creek Greenbelt we saw a Great Horned Owl that had just finished bathing in Bear Creek:

Great Horned Owl

Although we received no advance notice, today is apparently Hawk Day.  On our morning walk with the dog in the Bear Creek Greenbelt we saw three Cooper’s Hawks and two, maybe three, Red-tailed Hawks.  On a mountain bike ride at Bear Creek Lake Park we saw two Swainson’s Hawks and one Cooper’s Hawk.  Here’s a young Red-tailed Hawk we saw in the greenbelt:

Red-tailed Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk wasn’t too far, as the hawk flies, from the nest tree by Yale, and we have to wonder whether this is our resident pair’s offspring.Other birds we saw in the greenbelt this morning:

Black-chinned Hummingbird

Yellow Warbler

Cedar Waxwings