Laramie Hotspots, Plus Greenbelt Clean-up, Saturday, September 22nd

This Saturday is a big day!  We’ll start by birding within Laramie.  After meeting and arranging carpools at Night Heron Books and Coffeehouse (107 Ivinson Ave.) at 8 a.m., we’ll head to various Laramie “hot spots” – locations within the City limits that perennially seem to host higher-than-average numbers of migrants.  Potential stops include City Springs (at the north end of Boulder Drive), Greenhill Cemetery, LaBonte Park, and the Greenbelt.   

 

At noon we will re-convene for our annual Greenbelt cleanup, meeting at the south end of South Spruce Street.  On-street parking is available along Spruce and West Sheridan Streets.  For the cleanup, please bring work gloves.  Binoculars may be in order, as well.  This community service activity shouldn’t take long; LAS’s ¼-mile segment of the Greenbelt is less than half a mile from where we’ll park.

Hutton Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Field Trip

We are so lucky to have this gem in our backyard - just 12 miles from downtown Laramie to Hutton Lake NWR!  We'll travel there on Saturday with hopes of seeing the recently sighted Tricolored Heron and other migrating waterfowl, shorebirds, and grassland/sagebrush birds.  Meet at 8 a.m. at Night Heron Books and Coffeehouse, 107 Ivinson Avenue in downtown Laramie to procure coffee/snacks and to coordinate carpools. 

As always, be sure to bring sunscreen, warm clothing, water, snacks, and birding equipment. 

Hereford Ranch Trip - Fall Migrants
Saturday, September 8th - 7 a.m.

Meet us at Night Heron Books and Coffeehouse at 7 a.m. to caffeinate and organize carpools for our trip to the Wyoming Hereford Ranch in Cheyenne.  The mix of riparian habitat and grasslands and the location on the east edge of Cheyenne make Hereford Ranch one of the best birding areas in southeastern Wyoming. This trip is a chance to see possible rarities and some birds more often associated with the eastern U.S.  We plan to be back to Laramie at approximately noon. 

While this trip is suitable for children, please leave your dog at home - WHR is private property and we want to be sure that we are welcome in the future.  Remember to bring snacks, water, clothing suitable for the changing Wyoming weather, sturdy shoes, binoculars, and other birding accessories.

First Fall Trip: Rock Creek Canyon

Join us on Saturday, September 1st for LAS's first fall field trip.  We'll meet at Night Heron Books and Coffeehouse at 7 a.m. and carpool to the location where Rock Creek exits the Snowy Range (approximately 45 minutes west on I-80, 2 miles south of the Arlington exit).  While the trail extends up the canyon for many miles, the birds near the trailhead have been so abundant on previous trips that our past visits have involved minimal hiking.  If you have your own vehicle, you may want to budget time for a hike after the birdwalk.  Be sure to bring snacks, water, clothing suitable for the changing Wyoming weather, sturdy shoes, binoculars, and other birding accessories. 

Upcoming trip: Brown-capped Rosy-Finches

Join us on Saturday, July 21st for Laramie Audubon’s third annual trip to the Snowy Range looking for Brown-capped Rosy-Finch. We will carpool from Coal Creek Downtown, leaving at 7:30 am to the Sugarloaf Recreation Area. The area is a fee area ($5 per day without a year or annual pass).
From the Lewis Lake parking area we will hike approximately 1.3 miles across wetlands and talus rock up to the Gap between North and South Gap Lakes.

Numerous species of bird including pipits, swallows, juncos, White-crowned sparrows, warblers, and raptors could be observed. Marmots, pikas, and wildflowers occur along the trek.  We will spend approximately one hour at the Gap then return to the parking area.  The trip should last until late morning, before driving back to Laramie.

Bring binoculars, rain/windproof clothing, sunscreen, insect repellent, snacks/lunch, water, and hiking boots suitable for walking on talus and possible wet ground.

Special talk: Chris Parish on condors!

A surprise first state bird was awaiting lucky hikers on Medicine Bow Peak the weekend of July 7. Nathan Pieplow found a CALIFORNIA CONDOR at the peak, and many hikers as well as birders were able to get amazing looks at a captive-raised, young female condor named T2.

Condor on Med Bow Peak. Photo by Brian Waitkus.

The appearance of this condor sparked a lot of buzz among birders and non-birders across Wyoming. We are also lucky to have Chris Parish from the Peregrine Fund give us a special talk about condor conservation this weekend! The Peregrine Fund is in charge of the condor reintroduction project in northern Arizona, which is where T2 came from.

Please join us this Saturday, July 21, at 4 pm in the Berry Center auditorium for Chris' talk. He will tell us about the Peregrine Fund's endangered species work with the southwestern Condor Reintroduction Program and lessons they have learned that provide insights for greater conservation.  Chris will describe the history of the condor, its threats and near extinction, followed by the inception of the greater recovery program and the Peregrine Fund's role in producing and managing free-flying condors. He will also discuss implications for landscape-scale conservation related to lead poisoning in wildlife. Click here to read an announcement about the Peregrine Fund's latest effort to encourage the use of non-lead ammunition in hunting and shooting for the sake of wildlife health.

Photo by Brian Waitkus.

See our next newsletter for Brian Waitkus' full article with more info on T2!

Upcoming trip: Kids' Nature Walk

Join us for a Kids’ Nature Walk at LaBonte Park on Saturday, July 14. Meet at 8 am at the City’s Fort Sanders Building (Feeding Laramie Valley building) on the east side of the park (968 North 9th Street). We will continue around the park and Lake LaBonte looking for birds, insects, plants, and more.  The event will include optional scavenger hunt BINGO with fun prizes.

Upcoming trip: Banding station

We caught the first Albany Co record of Hooded Warbler!

This Sunday, June 10, we will head out to the MAPS banding station at Fred Lindzey's place near Centennial. This banding station is run by Audubon Rockies, and is part of the North American Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survival banding network. The goal of this banding program is to monitor demographics--survival and reproduction--of breeding birds. We will learn about how birds are banded, what we can learn from banded birds, and how we are able to determine the age of birds by looking at details of their feathers. Families and kids are welcome!

Meet Lisa Cox at Coal Creek Coffee downtown at 8 am to caffeinate and carpool. This is a nice chance for kids to get up close and personal with birds, but be aware that both the grass pollen and mosquitoes can be intense. Feel free to hang out at the banding station, but if you want to walk the net lanes you will be traipsing through standing water that can be over knee boots in places. Be prepared with mosquito repellant and appropriate clothes (long sleeves recommended), antihistamines, and boots or shoes that you don't mind getting wet.

Upcoming trip: Goshen Hole

Join us on Saturday, May 26th for Laramie Audubon’s first trip to the Goshen Hole! We will carpool from Coal Creek Downtown, leaving at 6:30 am sharp and returning around 4:30 in the afternoon. Major stops will be Rawhide WHMA, the Table Mountain complex, and Bump-Sullivan Reservoir, with ample opportunities to bird as we travel between locations. Target species for the trip include specialty breeders such as Orchard Oriole, Blue Grosbeak, and Red-headed Woodpecker; migrating shorebirds including White-rumped and Stilt Sandpiper; and any eastern vagrants we can find!

Bring binoculars, a spotting scope if you have one, snacks/lunch, water, and shoes suitable for walking several miles on uneven terrain. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to trip leader Don Jones at dwilbertjones@gmail.com or (307) 460-8114 no later than Wednesday, May 23rd and include whether you would be willing to drive and if so, how many extra seats you have in your vehicle.

Rawhide WHMA.

Upcoming trip: Hereford Ranch

Our next field trip is this Saturday, May 12--we'll head to the Hereford Ranch on the east side of Cheyenne. The riparian areas at the Hereford Ranch host an incredible array of expected migrants and often deliver rarities. This trip is a particularly nice one for beginning birders.

Meet downtown at Coal Creek at 8 am to caffeinate and carpool. We will be back to Laramie by 1 pm--if you can only join us for part of the time, be prepared to drive your own vehicle.

All Laramie Audubon field trips are free and open to the public; families are welcome. Bring binoculars, water and snacks, and dress for the weather.

Cheyenne Audubon special event - Noah Strycker

Cheyenne Audubon has invited us to join them for a special talk by Noah Strycker, well-known birder who set a global Big Year record in 2015. 

Noah's talk is on May 14 at 7 pm at the Laramie County Library. Cheyenne Audubon and Noah will spend the following day on an all-day field trip looping from Cheyenne, through Laramie, Sybille Canyon, Wheatland, Guernsey, Torrington, and back to Cheyenne. 

For more details about the talk or the field trip, check out Cheyenne Audubon's website here.

Upcoming trip: Arapaho NWR

We will head to Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge near Walden, Colorado, this Saturday, May 5. Meet at 8:00 am at Coal Creek Coffee downtown to caffeinate and carpool. The drive to Walden is about one and a half hours via Hwy 230 to Walden CO. We will probably also stop at Walden Reservoir on our way to Arapaho.

We will look for shorebirds and waterfowl in breeding plumage, raptors and grassland birds. We may get lucky and see the Western Grebes in courtship display running across the water at Walden Reservoir. At the refuge, there is a hiking/interpretive trail through wetlands where we should see swallows, wrens, warblers, and perhaps a moose. Be sure to bring plenty of snacks and water since this is a lengthy trip. It is possible to eat lunch in Walden after the field trip. We should return to Laramie by 2 pm, but participants in their own vehicles are welcome to leave at any time.

Birding the Wetland Nature Trail at Arapaho. Photo by Libby Megna.