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SCHOLARSHIP REPORTS 2006

2006 Young Birders Conference, Fort Collins, CO

30 June - 5 July 2006

By Elise Becker

When the Kern, California Young Birders’ Conference ended, I eagerly awaited the next one and was delighted to learn that it would be held in my home state. Full of anticipation, I awaited the thirtieth of June, when I would be driven to Fort Collins for the 2006 Young Birders’ Conference (YBC) in Colorado.

After arriving in Fort Collins, I had some time to kill before the formal welcome and orientation. I spent this breaking the ice with my new roommate, Saraiya Ruano, who was the only other girl attending the YBC this year. I was surprised and glad to learn that she lived in the same city as me, Colorado Springs, CO! Together, we headed to the conference room for the orientation.

The first part of the orientation was devoted to introductions. I saw a few familiar faces among the participants, and was happy to see the same leaders as were in Kern (except for John Dunn, who was unable to make it). Our leaders, Michael O’Brien, Louise Zemaitis, Bill Schmoker, and Steve Howell, told us a little about what terrain, weather, and birds that we could expect on our various trips. Once we had taken note of these important descriptions, we ate a pizza dinner and listened to a distinguished guest speaker, Jim Rising, who lectured us on sparrow ID. Later, an optional trip to view Great-horned Owls on the nearby CSU campus and Poor-wills in the Fort Collins foothills was offered. Most of us got good looks at both before we returned, satisfied and ready for bed.

Bright and early the next morning, we met for breakfast in the hotel lobby before heading to our first birding hotspot, the Pawnee National Grasslands. Just as the sun was coming up, we made our first stop and found grassland species: Burrowing Owl chicks and adults, Horned Larks, Western Meadowlarks, and a Pawnee specialty, Mountain Plover. When we’d all gotten some great looks, we loaded back into the vans and headed to Crow-valley Campground, a productive birding area where we were able to see several new trip species including Brown Thrasher, Loggerhead Shrike, Orchard Oriole, and an extremely cooperative Common Nighthawk that everyone with a camera practiced their photography on. We were also treated to the highly interesting but rather grisly sight of a gopher snake in a Western Kingbird’s nest, eating the young. We were able to clearly see the red in the Kingbird’s crest, which was a little ironic, as Louise had just seconds before told us that you never see it unless the bird is extremely angry. We birded the campground for the better part of the morning, then went to a place where we could pick up longspurs, a lifer for most of the participants. We found a good stop when Saraiya spotted a large raptor perched on a windmill above a waterhole. After much debate as to the identity of the rather scruffy bird, it was determined to be a young Golden Eagle. Since we were already out of the vans, and it seemed as good a spot as any, we looked for longspurs and were rewarded with both McCown’s (plentiful), and Chestnut-collared (very few) Longspurs at this location. We also got Lark Buntings and ended up with a nickname for Niko that stuck, “Bunting Boy”. The group stayed and birded for a while, then we drove on to a place where we saw a Killdeer in the shadows.

Afterwards, we returned to Crow-valley Campground where we ate our lunches and watched a Blue Jay who lingered in the branches, a crumb-vulture. Lunch finished, we were off to the Pawnee Buttes where early on we saw Lark Sparrows, Vesper Sparrows, and also numerous Rock Wrens. Most of the group then chose to do a death-march across the buttes, but several, myself included, hung back and took a break to watch the wrens hop around and the others in the group struggle laboriously on the rock getting sweaty and sunburned in the intense heat. After this little adventure we returned, worn-out, to the hotel. A bunch of guys headed to the pool to cool down, but for some reason, they ended up staying in the hot tub the whole time. Saraiya and I spent our downtime sensibly, showering and resting before dinner and Michael’s workshop on E-bird and field observation.

Our next trip had the most brutal early departure of the whole conference, but on the whole it was well worth it, as Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge and the Cameron Pass area proved to be one of the most productive trips. We got awesome looks at Sora and American Coot chicks, Eared Grebes, Greater Sage-grouse, a Three-toed Woodpecker in Cameron pass, and a great collection of water fowl and shorebirds such as Northern Shoveler, Cinnamon Teal, Wilson’s Snipe, and many others. We also saw a good collection of Colorado mammals such as a Moose and a badger busy digging a burrow near a drainage culvert. On the way back, we stopped at a visitor center where there was a lot of hummingbird activity; Rufous and Broad-tailed Hummingbirds were coming in to the several feeders (some people from our group, myself included, put fingers on the perches and got hummers to land on them). It was also at this location that the van drivers bought mascots, a badger and a raven, to sit on the dashboards and make sure we behaved ourselves. After the stop, we got back in the vans but made the long drive back to town more bearable by getting games going. We got back, spent time showering or in the pool, then had the night off to relax, play the photo quiz, and socialize.

On our next field trip, we went way up in elevation to start the day birding at the top of Rocky Mountain National Park. Our goal was to find White-tailed Ptarmigans and other alpine species on the tundra area above timberline. On our way up, we caught glimpses of Clark’s Nutcracker, American Pipit, and had fantastic looks at American Dipper. We didn’t find any ptarmigan at our first stop, so we moved on. At our next alpine tundra birding area, we observed two alpine mammals, the Pika and a Marmot, before hiking on. Later, at nearly the exact place where I had first seen Ptarmigan with my mom, we saw two beautiful specimens of White-tailed Ptarmigan, a male and female, working a small area near the trail. Since they were so close, and didn’t move around too much, we were able to really study them. We watched them for a good while since they were new to almost everyone, and took advantage of the great photo op that they provided. Contented, we headed down to our lunch location. After lunch we birded the location picking up Pygmy, White-breasted, and Red-breasted Nuthatches, Dusky and Cordilleran Flycatcher, and were looking for more when it started to rain. Nice, light rain at first, then it poured – and those of us not wearing raingear got drenched as we fled back to the vans. Soaked or not, we still had a blast! Since we were rained out of this stop, we drove to another and waited for the rain to clear. When it did, we disembarked and were rewarded with good views of McGillivary’s Warbler and some fabulous looks at a female Blue (Dusky) Grouse and her fuzzy chicks. Some of us paused to take one last look before getting back in the vans, and the grouse emerged and practically wandered over our feet. Satisfied with the trip, we drove back to base camp for some rest and dinner. We then enjoyed Louise’s awesome workshop on ‘Birding from a Naturalist’s Point of View’, which was my personal favorite.

Our last ‘official’ trip was in the Boulder area, where we met Ted Floyd, our local leader. We first birded Gregory Canyon, where we saw Yellow-breasted Chats, Warbling Vireo, Western Tanagers, Canyon Wrens, Virginia’s Warbler, and more. We then headed to Walden Ponds and got more water birds such as Green Heron, Redhead, and yellowlegs. We were also able to see Rough-winged, Tree, and Barn Swallows. We lunched at the Ponds, and listened to Bill’s talk on Digiscoping, which was very helpful for me. After this productive birding trip in Boulder, we boarded the vans and headed back to the hotel.

We had a little free time before Steve's highly informative lecture on bird molt; I think we all learned a lot. Afterwards, as fitting for the fourth of July, we had a BBQ dinner and a good time socializing. We then got the answers to the photo quiz and those who had the most correct picked prizes. Our panel discussion followed the photo quiz, and it was a very good exchange between leaders and participants. After the panel discussion, we went owling at nearby Lee Martinez Park. We had only been there for about ten minutes when our talented owl-calling leader Michael found us one. It was a great to see an Eastern Screech Owl, which was a lifer for me. Deeply satisfied, we returned to our hotel where many of us headed to the conference room instead of bed to talk and play cards. Even a leader joined us, and Michael always knew when we were bluffing!

On our last morning together, we were led by a local Fort Collins birder, Rachel Hopper. She took us to a spot where we snagged Grasshopper Sparrow and four other sparrow species that we missed at Pawnee. She then took us to Watson Lake in the foothills. There we observed a couple of Golden Eagle aeries, and Michael found us a Barn Owl nest with chicks. After this last spot, we said our good-byes then headed back, for the last time, to the hotel. My dad's truck was parked in the lot, so I said my own farewells to my new friends, wishing that the conference had lasted a little longer.

I had a blast at the YBC, and I am looking forward to the next one. I am grateful to the ABA for granting me a scholarship, and to Mrs. Andrews for donating the money. The YBC was truly a fun and educational experience, and I saw a good number of new birds. I also made some awesome new friends, and cannot think of a better way to have spent a week. See everyone in 2008!

These young birders attended the camps/events they report on with the help of ABA scholarships.