Sometimes in birding things just don’t work out. We started and finished the day at two different Sharp-tailed Grouse lek sites, but didn’t get a sniff. We spent the rest of the day visiting half a dozen birding locations around Steamboat Springs and did manage to add a few trip ticks, but it was hard going. The temperature was below freezing for most of the day and most of the water bodies we visited were understandably frozen. In one small corner of Stagecoach State Park reservoir we did find a few Barrow’s Goldeneye and around the ski resort several Stellar’s Jay. We spent a long time looking at flocks of Junco feeding by the roadside – mostly they were the localised race of Red-backed, with a few Pink-sided individuals amongst them. Animal highlight was a distant Porcupine. After thirteen hours of non-stop birding a MacDonald’s, a beer and an early night!