I returned yesterday from a 3-day camping trip in State Forest State Park west of Cameron Pass. Tried looking for boreal owls in the Ruby Jewel Road and Canada Trail areas and heard only one in the Ranger Lakes area. In the Chambers Lake area located an osprey, a three-toed woodpecker, and a brown-capped rosy finch. At the Moose Visitor Center off Hwy.14 just west of Cameron Pass I counted several broad-tailed hummingbirds, calliope hummingbirds, and a few rufous hummingbirds. Also at the visitor center were cassin's finches, white-crowned sparrows, pine siskins, a brown-headed cowbird, and a few pine grosbeaks on July 5, 2009. Halfway between Cameron Pass and Walden a pair of swainson's hawks were counted and a golden eagle was seen soaring about 5 miles west of the KOA campground in Gould. In the Ranger Lakes area I searched for moose but had no luck; however, I found a Williamson's sapsucker 7/7/09 in the late afternoon and heard a boreal owl later at night. Other sightings of note: violet-green swallows, Western wood Pewee, flickers, and hairy woodpecker on Ruby Jewel Rd campsite #421 (7/6), Eastern Pewee on Larimer River Rd, American dipper near Cameron Pass in a stream, a mountain bluebird near Walden, and numerous hermit thrushes singing, but not seen, at Joe Wright Reservoir parking areas off Hwy. 14. At Trap Lake four or five miles east of Cameron Pass I counted 2 ring-necked duck and four spotted sandpipers 7/8/09. Finally, one nesting red-naped sapsucker was observed feeding young approx. 7 miles into Laramie River Rd .05 miles along the West Branch Trail near the Tunnel stream on 7/8/09.

 

Lou Mazzola