Oregon - November 2025 - Trip List

The trip list was 106, about what I expected. Of these six were new for the USA, and five were new world ticks. It was all about America though, and these six took me to 593. A notable milestone is just around the corner...How people do yearlists of 700+ is beyond me, I feel like I've been birding in America for most of my adult life and am still shy of 600! (or was at the end of this trip at any rate, come back soon for an update.....surprise!)

Had the conditions been good for seawatching I might have added another five that first morning - this remains the largest gap for me. One day I need to go on a pelagic, it could propel me to new heights.

Las Vegas - December 2021 - Day 2

I was flying back out in the evening, and the hour I had wasted taking tests, scanning codes and filling in forms resulted in being able to check in online and get a boarding pass now I was within 24 hours. Hurrah! I had another breakfast at Denny's and then attended the mythical appointment that I thought would never happen - the mountain of paperwork I had with me wasn't in the event asked for and whilst it wasn't exactly in and out, it was done. A three month nail-biting saga over - celebrations would take place later, for now birding for as long as possible prior to returning to London was the order of the day.

I could have gone back west to try for some more ABA ticks, but that had been rather gruelling and I was in the mood for some relaxed birding. Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve, to the east of the city, seemed to offer a wealth of species to bump up my all-important Nevada list. It was wonderful, a series of medium to large lagoons absolutely teeming with bird life. I racked up nearly 50 species over the course of a couple of hours. Ducks galore - Wood Duck, Cinnamon Teal, hundreds of Shoveler and Ruddy Duck, Bufflehead, Pintail, and single figures of Bufflehead, Ring-necked-Duck, Redhead and Green-winged Teal.

American Avocet

I couldn't begin to count the American Coot there were so many, odd that I could only find three American Moorhens in the whole complex. Pied-billed Grebe were numerous, and one of the lagoons had a single flock of eight Black-necked Grebes. A pair of Northern Harriers were hunting low over one of the furthest lagoons, and a flooded muddy field outside the boundary fence had a number of Killdeer. The rarest birds were probably an unseasonal pair of American Avocets. Meanwhile small numbers of Rough-winged and Barn Swallow flew over the water, and Vermillion Flycatchers, Say's and Black Phoebe were common, but outnumbered hugely by Yellow-rumped Warblers that were simply everywhere.

female Vermillion Flycatcher

Verdin

It was just really good birding, if rather like shooting fish in a barrel. Birds everywhere. At the front gate they had a number of feeders set up, and sitting on a bench here and waiting afforded good views of Anna's and Costa's Hummingbirds, Abert's Towhee, and a small groups of Mourning Dove and Gambell's Quail skittered around. I wish I had had all my camera stuff, as it was I had brought just a small lens and ended up not really using it very much as I was just in birding mode.

Mourning Dove

I finished the day just up the road at the Clark County Wetlands Park. I am not sure if I ever found the right area as water here was quite hard to find and the bird count was very low, at least compared to Henderson. Best of the bunch were more hunting Northern Harriers, a Cooper's Hawk and a bird I had really hoped to see - Greater Roadrunner!

Meep meep!

With the light gone I went on a small shopping spree for jeans and so on at one of the massive outlet malls near the airport, packed up, gave the car back, and went into the  terminal as I could not think of anything else to do - the bright lights of The Strip hold no attraction for me whatsoever. Sadly the lounge was closed so I could not shelter from the masses with a gin and tonic and instead had to endure the terminal. Call me a snob but the kind of people who come to Las Vegas for fun are not my kind of people. Finally they called the flight, which was when I discovered that my online boarding card which had got me as far as the gate was no good, and that somebody wanted to see a paper one which I did not have. In order to get one I had to find and show all the documents I had used to get the online one. I mean what is the point, just what is the bloody point? Travelling at the moment is just no fun at all. Anyway, I got on and arrived safely in London the next morning, and my day 2 PCR test was negative, so I also avoided the Omicron wave that was picking up in the US. Looking back I can still scarcely believe it. What had seemed impossible had been achieved, in almost record time and against a backdrop of significantly increased logistical difficulties. 

I saw 71 species, not loads, but also not too bad given the circumstances. With a few more days and some planning, I think a winter trip to Nevada could be really good, much like Arizona. I would have to do some research to see if there are birds in Nevada that are not available further south - possibly there are not, but it could also be combined with a visit to some of the National Parks in Utah and Arizona, as well as the Grand Canyon and Death Valley. America is vast and magnificent. Sitting here now I am imagining what I could do with infinite free time, where I could go, what I could see. I reckon I could make a road trip last months and not get bored. One day perhaps, one day.

The Midwest - Day 3 - Boulder, Lyons and Rocky Mountain NP

My birding day had been going about five minutes before I diverted, finding myself at a dog-walking enclosure called Davidson Mesa. I think it was probably more than this, a large outdoor space with trails and cycle paths, but somehow I ended up in the fenced off dog poop area when in fact I could just have walked along the adjacent cycle path, something I found out on my way back . Awesome. In fact cycle paths were a standout feature of Denver, more than I have ever seen, all high quality and fully paved, and all being used massively. There were still tons of cars everywhere of course, but I have never seen an American city that has made such a huge commitment to cycling. Props. The reason I had stopped the car so early was the sun coming up over the plain and lighting up the Rockies. As per the previous morning there was no way a photograph can do this justice, but with the different vantage point it was equally mesmerising, and livened up by a hunting Northern Harrier over the scrub.

By the way, here is my itinerary - the second part of the plan that I mentioned in the last post. As you can see I break up the day into blocks of time, and the use this to cross reference with the list of species. I plan all my trips like this and it generally works quite well although as you can see I don't necessarily get to everywhere, or perhaps do things in a slightly different order. 

This post is about Friday so I've already deviated - basically playing catch-up from the prior day. My actual destination was not Davidson Mesa but the Valmont Reservoir complex to the east of Boulder, which had been on yesterday's agenda. EBird showed this to have a good mix of species and a spot on the south side where you could park and scan. It was as good as I expected it to be, with literally the first bird seen a Barrow's Goldeneye on the nearest water. Distant, but the light was exceptionally good and the crescent could be seen very clearly. Another target down, and complemented by a good selection of other ducks including hundreds of Goosander and Bufflehead. 

Thousands of Cackling Geese on a random lake near Boulder. There is a Snow Goose just about visible on the left hand side.

Voila!

Muskrat

American Wigeon

I now abandoned the plan entirely, as just a short distance up the road I had found a new spot that looked really promising - Walden and Sawhill Ponds. I spent two hours walking a big loop here, way more time than really I should have, but the ponds had a wide selection of species . Although not what I had specifically been looking for, it escaped me then and escapes me now! But there were tons of close views of ducks, Belted Kingfishers, another Townsend's Solitaire and lots of passerine activity.

Canyon Wren

By mid morning I was vaguely back on track, birding Old Saint Vrain Road near the town of Lyons which is between Boulder and Fort Collins. It was rammed with birders and bird photographers - I did not know this but the previous day a Pygmy Owl had been found in the canyon. My target was a Winter Wren which I could not find, perhaps too many people around, but a Canyon Wren was hopping around the rock face, three Townsend's Solitaires were amongst loads of American Robins, and my first American Tree Sparrow of the trip was in some brush scrub. I probably spend too much time here hoping for the Wren, and thus was quite late to my next stop, the Cemetery at Lyons. This was billed as a good spot for Woodhouse's Scrub Jay, and sure enough once I reached the top of the cemetery and headed out on the track east across the hillside I found quite a few - very vocal as usual.

Rocky Mountain NP

Finally I made it into Rocky Mountain National Park by early afternoon. Blue skies and generally beautiful weather as well as the time of day did not auger well, and although I tried several spots there were almost no birds. In fact I would go as far as to say it was terrible, in particular Upper Beaver Meadows which had seemed so promising had a count of three species, none of which were the ones I was after! The Matthews-Reeser Bird Sanctuary at the end of Lake Estes was similarly poor - really hard work for almost no reward. Looking back at other peoples' lists on eBird I can scarcely believe I had birded the same spots but that is just how it goes sometimes. To add insult to injury US-34 which would have completed my loop and taken me to Loveland and Fort Collins was closed and I had to return on US-36, the same way I had come. This placed me a good 20 miles further south than I wanted to be and also meant I missed out on a tagged site for Pinyon Jay. So all in all a day which had started well with the duck but that had gradually seemed to dwindle away. Still, tomorrow was another day and there were still plenty of sites close to where I was staying that showed promise, albeit that I needed to get to South Dakota by the evening, a drive of somewhere between four and five hours.

A rather magnificent Elk, although who knows, maybe this is a small one?!